Neighborhoods near Punta Gorda Airport seeing an increase in planes overhead

More planes fly over homes in Punta Gorda, but it is not for added routes. Construction at the airport sends those planes on different flight paths, frustrating people who live near the airport.

More airplanes are flying over Ventura Lakes these days. The people who run the Punta Gorda Airport say they have no choice but to re-route traffic. They can no longer put off the reconstruction of one of the two runways.

“This project’s important for the future of Punta Gorda Airport because this runway is about 80 years old, and it’s gone through a lot of wear and tear,” said Punta Gorda Airport Marketing and Communication Director Kaley Miller. She said the renovations would take at least a year.

Judith Lanning lives in Ventura Lakes, just three miles away from the airport. “I do not mind the planes. I grew up with B-52s flying over my parents’ home. They would make so much noise and vibration that the pictures would rattle on the wall, so these are nothing compared to that,” said Lanning.

Neighbor Kurt Bishoff is not happy about the increase in air traffic over his home. “The noise is pretty scary. Secondly, if a plane should have some type of a failure, I mean, there aren’t too many options except for to land right here. All it takes is one airplane to land on your house and that’s the end of that,” said Bishoff.

The airport cannot limit when airlines take off and land, but the airport authority did work with Allegiant Airlines to swap out the noisy MD-80 aircraft for the quieter Airbus ones.

The goal is to finish work on the runway by the end of the year.

There will be no commercial airline traffic at Punta Gorda Airport from September 6th through September 12th for what the airport calls ‘necessary construction connections.’

If you want to know more about the runway upgrades at Punta Gorda Airport, you can click here.