Your article, “Comment ends soon on FAA flight proposal,” erroneously states that the proposed changes to controlled airspace over the Atlanta metro area (Class B airspace) will allow aircraft to fly lower. This is not true.
Aircraft flying in the controlled airspace will fly at the same altitudes they are flying at today. Under the current airspace design, aircraft flying into and out of Atlanta [Hartsfield-Jackson International] Airport are straying out of the controlled airspace, creating additional workload for controllers who handle traffic in and out of the world’s busiest airport. This is because the number of flights has doubled since the airspace was designed in 1977. Lowering the floor of the controlled airspace will allow these flights to remain in controlled airspace, and remain safely separated from the flights that are flying without air traffic control service.
Also, as mentioned in the FAA’s March 1 briefing in Chamblee, and in the FAA’s fact sheet which you received at the meeting and via email, 99 percent of metro area flights that are not in controlled airspace are flying well below the current floor of the Class B airspace.
Lowering the floor will have virtually no impact on those flights.
Kathleen Bergen
Manager, External Communications/Public Affairs
FAA Southern Region