FAA issues new official flight patterns at Colorado's Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport

Rocky Mountain Metropolitan Airport continues to receive noise complaints from residents after flight patterns changed this summer. Now, similar patterns may be here to stay through 2027.

Earlier this week, the FAA notified airmen of new flight patterns coming to RMMA this December. The new official flight patterns are pretty similar to the patterns CBS Colorado first reported this summer that go over the Louisville area. The official changes come after an FAA memo showed the airport had the most incidents in the country. 

On Thursday, RMMA held an open house to meet with the community and address the changes.

Dozens of people came to the open house, including a member of the Louisville City Council, to discuss the new flight patterns and frustrations about the noise, but the airport says there isn't much they can do. They expect the flight patterns to stay in place through 2027.

RMMA Airport Director Erick Dahl said, "It's nothing that we control. The FAA certainly has all the control, all of the authority on that. They didn't ask us anything about what we thought about the change in flight paths, and so we're trying to provide an opportunity for the people to talk to the people who will listen."

When Your Reporter Sarah Horbacewicz asked Dahl, "Are you frustrated with the FAA?" He said, "I think a lot of people are for many different reasons," he went on to say, "The communication with them has been sporadic."

Right now, there is a Part 1550 noise study going on, but the airport says the FAA sets the radius of where that study includes, and as of right now, it does not include most of Louisville. The new flight patterns are set to take effect in December and are expected to continue through December 2027.

CBS Colorado reached out to the FAA on Thursday but did not immediately hear back.

More details from the FAA on the new flight patterns can be found online.