HAI/CATHY STONECIPHER
Aerial tours of large wilderness areas with little road access enable a wider audience to experience the scenic beauty.
Tour operators argue that the IOA allocations were essential for their companies to be posi- tioned for a changing marketplace. “Papillon has allocations in Glen Canyon
and throughout Utah, and it is a perfect example of how the markets shift to different parks,” says Tomlin. “People change where they want to go, especially with social media. Tey see something cool, and they want to go there. When the Grand Canyon slowed down, we saw an uptick in Glen Canyon and the national parks in Utah. Suddenly, a lot of our unused IOA allotments became highly used. It was good to have that leeway to meet the demands of a shifting marketplace.” In addition to dictating the number of annual
flights permitted by each operator, the ATMPs provide detailed directions on how operators can conduct those flights. Tey assign routes and altitudes, outline the hours a tour can be operated, and sometimes cap the number of tours allowed per day. For some operators, hours are reduced, some days are designated as “no fly days,” and daily tours are limited. For instance, the draft ATMP for Hawai‘i Volcanoes National Park proposes alternatives that ban flights on Sundays and another that suggests daily caps. When daily caps are enforced, operators may not reschedule canceled flights, further reducing the number of permitted
38 ROTOR DECEMBER 2022
annual flights. Glacier National Park’s final ATMP is clear
in its intended effect on air tour economic viability. It states 144 annual commercial air tours are allowed “until such tours are phased out through attrition or until 11:59 pm local time on Dec. 31, 2029, when all operating authority for the park will be terminated.”
Safety Concerns Go Unaddressed Te ATMP process as set forth in the NPATMA includes consultation with the aerial tour industry through the NPOAG. However, air tour operators believe that the ATMP process as practiced since the 2020 court order has silenced their ability to meaningfully contribute, creating unsafe conditions for tour flight operations over the parks. “We do have safety concerns with how the
court mandate to complete the ATMPs has led to a rushed and non-comprehensive creation and implementation process,” Blue Hawaiian shared in a statement. In some cases, airplanes and helicopters
share assigned routes with only 500-ft. sepa- rations, creating safety concerns. Glacier National Park’s final ATMP assigns one route for both aircraft types, assigning a 500-ft. separation as the route ascends into moun- tain ous terrain. In the draft ATMP for Hawai‘i
Volcanoes National Park, one alternative calls for pushing all flights offshore while another offers routes and altitudes that would often put aircraft in the clouds and over congested visitor areas. Neither option allows safe deviations. “Since it is known that fast-changing weather
is a major hazard in Hawaii and that FAA-issued altitude deviations provide a good mitigation, we will fully support the FAA in stepping in to insist upon these deviations being added to the proposed ATMP to ensure the safety of our crews and passengers.… Tere are also potential noise issues that do not appear to be considered by the National Parks and the FAA,” Blue Hawaiian’s statement added. “We have been working with Hawai‘i Volcanoes
National Park and Haleakalā National Park since the inception of our agreements in the ’80s, and the park superintendents at the time understood shared access and we worked together to reduce impact to ground visitors,” says Paul Morris, director of operations at Sunshine Helicopters. “Now the NPS is seeking to reduce flights and mandate specific routes that do not consider the changing weather conditions we face in Hawaii. As a result, this restricts the pilot’s ability to deviate, which could reduce the level of safety we currently have in the Hawaii Air Tour Common Procedures
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