Naples Airport shelves plan to shame flight curfew violators

The Naples Airport Authority has stepped back from the idea of publishing the names of persistent flight curfew violators in local newspapers — at least for now.

During the June 19 NAA meeting, board member John Crees and other commissioners asked Community Relations Director Robin King to design a program that would name repeat offenders in full-page newspaper ads.

“Like the post office, ‘Wanted: For Noise Violations,’” Crees suggested. “We need to ramp things up.”

The airport’s “Fly Safe, Fly Quiet” program asks pilots to remain grounded between 10 p.m. and 7 a.m. to reduce jet noise that can disturb Naples residents. The curfew, however, is not legally binding. That’s one of the reasons the NAA in August decided to hold off publishing the names of persistent violators in local newspapers and other publications. Curfew violators are listed on the NAA website and in the NAA monthly business report.

During the August meeting, King proposed a phased approach to educating curfew violators that leads eventually to having their company names and contact information published in a newspaper ad. The board hopes publicly identifying those violators will lead them to change their behavior.

“Regular advertising could raise the visibility and reputational impact of the persistent disruptors,” King suggested.

The first, second and third times the same person or company flies during the curfew, an airport noise abatement specialist first confirms by tail number and tracking data which aircraft flew during the off hours. The specialist then contacts the company or individual to determine why they flew during the curfew. According to King, bad weather, air traffic delays and other factors can force travelers to postpone flights until after 10 p.m.

If the specialist determines no such factors exist, the specialist reminds the pilot/operator of the voluntary curfew, including links to noise abatement policies and guidance as needed. The specialist also can send a warning letter to the curfew violator. It can be signed by NAA Chairman Rita Cuddihy and Naples Mayor Teresa Heitmann.

The fourth violation leads to a “more assertive letter and an in-person visit or call from the noise abatement specialist,” King told the commissioners. NAA commissioners or Naples city council members could also meet with the executives of the company that own the offending aircraft. If companies and/or aircraft owners still continue to fly during the voluntary curfew, their names would then appear in daily newspapers.

“If more than four, we propose to do a call-out to raise visibility and reputational impact to the airport,” King said. “We recommend a full-page ad, something perhaps two columns, a ‘Thank You’ column and a ‘Not You’ column for persistent disrupters.”

The airport authority can only list publicly available information from the FAA Registry, such as aircraft tail numbers; the person or entity the aircraft is registered to; and an address, King said. It would not include phone numbers of individuals.

The names of persistent curfew violators could also be available in the city newsletter, on the Naples Airport website and in the monthly board report. In fact, the monthly board report already lists top curfew violators for the month and for the year. In July, for instance, RexAir topped the list with 29 flights. The list also already includes the company’s address and phone number — as it does for the other violators on the list.

Commissioner Bob Burns liked the idea of the public calling curfew violators.

“It’s just putting it into a broader stage,” he said. “It’s why you put it out there, to encourage people; if they want to contact someone, they could.”

The commissioners, however, decided against publishing the names in the popular press.

Commissioner Terry Cavanaugh called it a “path we should not take.

“I now struggle with this. There’s so much negativity in the world locally and nationally,” he said. “They are not violating local law. It would be better not to do anything.”

Commissioner Kerry C. Dustin raised the specter of violence against anyone named in the “shaming” ad. He suggested continuing with repeated outreach, such as letters, calls and in-person visits to persistent curfew violators from NAA commissioners and city council members.

Commissioner John Crees, noting that pilots have “every legal right” to fly during the voluntary curfew, suggested the airport continue with its friendlier outreach. NetJets, which leases jets to individuals and firms, has told its clients that it will adhere to the curfew after meeting with airport officials, he said.

“This may be going too far with the advertising,” he said. “We’ve seen several acts of violence against police, ICE agents and healthcare executives. We don’t know what might trigger one of our local citizens, and giving them all this personal information and having someone do something like that scares … me.”

The board agreed to continue outreach to curfew violators via the noise abatement specialist, as well as letters, phone calls and personal meetings with NAA commissioners and city council members.

“Let’s discontinue publishing the leaderboard in the paper, continue it on the NAA website and the City Council newsletter,” Cuddihy said. “Let’s discontinue the full-page ads — and don’t start the ‘bad boy’ ads.”

Commissioners will revisit how well that’s working in about six months and, if necessary, launch the full-page ads shaming repeated violators.