Grand Canyon air-tour proponents received yet another blow August 16 when the U.S. Court of Appeals ruled against a package of challenges brought against FAA noise and operations caps. Moreover, the court ruled in favor of a Canyon-oriented environmental group, holding for the first time that FAA planners must also measure and account for noise generated by private airplanes in Canyon airspace, a decision marking the first time this issue has been added to the FAA mandate.
These latest decisions were the results of challenges to FAA rules brought by the U.S. Air Tour Association (USATA), a pro-air-tour industry group, and the Grand Canyon Trust (GCT), a coalition of six environmental groups. USATA has long maintained that current FAA rules capping the total number of permissible flight hours are an unfair restriction of trade, a position the association has yet to persuade a court to agree with.