You might not be able to fly over Hawaii's volcanoes anymore

A new federal management plan seeks to reduce noise levels generated by commercial helicopter tours over Hawaii Volcanoes National Park by significantly scaling back the number of tours allowed each day and limiting which routes they can take.

The National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration collaborated on the Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP) for the park. Their stipulations were released on Dec. 20, 2023. 

Commercial helicopter operators can continue to offer air tours as specifications are amended.  

The federal agencies are seeking to institute no-fly dates, including Sundays and six traditional Hawaiian holidays, and condense the daily schedule from 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. local time for most tours to fly over the park. 

The biggest blows to the commercial helicopter industry are a reduction in the annual number of air tours and which tour routes they’re allowed to fly in the park. 

However, the sharp decline in annual operations isn’t what some commercial helicopter businesses say will hurt them the most. Quentin Koch, owner of Blue Hawaiian Helicopters, told SFGATE that by limiting the number of flight routes to only three, the ATMP creates a safety concern by stripping pilots of their discretion for choosing “the safest route for the ever-changing weather in Hawaii.”

Koch is hoping that the park service and FAA allow operators to adopt a “voluntary plan” that he said would allow their pilots to have more choices on which routes they can fly.

“I’m really hopeful that the FAA will look at this from a safety aspect and will give us flexibility on the routes,” he said. “We don’t like the set routes.”

Years in the making, the plan seeks to address disruptive noise levels inside the park. In order to meet the requirements of the National Parks Air Tour Management Act passed in 2000, the park service and FAA are developing either an air tour management plan or a voluntary agreement. 

Hawaii Volcanoes National Park is one of several national parks the two agencies are working to address.

The ATMP references a 2007 survey conducted in Hawaii Volcanoes National Park which found that “the majority of people who reported hearing aircraft considered it either unacceptable or annoying and reported negative emotions or feelings associated with aircraft sound.” The ATMP also noted that the helicopter noise had an effect on “critically endangered Hawaiian endemics.”

The coalition’s founding member Bob Ernst, a rancher and farmer who lives under a flight path taken by commercial helicopters, explained to SFGATE that although the ATMP may appear like a win for the coalition, it doesn’t go far enough. He wants to see a full restriction of flights over the park.

“This ATMP proposal is totally unacceptable and we’re not going to settle for it,” Ernst said. “The public comments in the ATMP show that most people said they want a no-fly in the park.”

Ernst suggests that helicopter tours use routes that fly by the shore as opposed to inside the park. “They don’t lose any business and can still bring customers,” he said. “That’s an aloha way of doing business.”

For other residents living within the vicinity of the park, the helicopter tours have remained a constant nuisance, and the ATMP is just the latest chapter in an ongoing struggle for serenity. 

“It still pisses me off,” said Sharon O’Connell, who lives under a flight path used to fly to Akaka Falls State Park. “I have a long driveway and every time one of them flies near me, I run up and down flipping them off. I don’t need to join a gym; I just need those copters to go away.”