Napa’s elected leaders are turning up the volume on jet noise concerns, voting on April 7 to send a formal letter urging the county to coordinate a response after a surge in aircraft-noise complaints linked to a newly published flight approach into Napa County Airport. The council is pushing county supervisors to look at possible alternative procedures while still putting safety and efficient airport operations at the forefront. Neighbors east of Silverado Trail and other valley residents say the new routings sound louder and more frequent than what they were used to. City officials also volunteered to join the Airport Advisory Commission’s noise working group to help shape whatever happens next.
The letter, approved at Tuesday’s council meeting, specifically calls out the FAA’s new “19 Right” published approach as the driver of rising complaints and asks the county to pursue a collaborative, data-driven review along with more community outreach, as reported by the Napa Valley Register. The city also reiterated its support for the county’s ongoing work on noise issues and formally offered to provide a representative for the county’s noise working group. Council members framed the push as an attempt to balance residents’ quality of life with the need to keep airport operations safe and reliable.
What the new 19R procedure does
The FAA’s RNAV (GPS) RWY 19R procedure, which was published to give pilots an instrument approach to Runway 19R during low-visibility conditions, lays out a series of waypoints and required altitudes that shift where aircraft fly on final approach. Napa County’s informational materials describe fixes such as REBAS, POPES and INT STP and plot the glide path and step-down altitudes that bring arrivals down through the valley before they line up with the runway. That mapping helps explain why some residents say the flights now feel closer than they used to, according to Napa County.
County moves: consultants and studies
County leaders were already bringing in backup even before the latest wave of complaints. In November 2025, the Board of Supervisors approved an amendment to its agreement with Coffman Associates that extended the contract and added funding for environmental and planning work, explicitly including a look at alternative flight approaches such as a proposed “fair-weather” routing, according to the county’s Board packet. Records on Napa County Legistar show the amendment both raised the contract cap and extended the term so that study could move forward.
Neighbors say the noise has changed daily life
On the ground, east Napa residents have been venting their frustration through the airport hotline and the FAA noise portal, and by organizing neighborhood petitions. One petition highlighted in local coverage pulled in more than 200 signatures. A resident wrote that her home was “shattered by the constant roar of airplanes flying overhead,” a complaint that echoes through interviews and public comments reported by The Press Democrat. Airport staff have told county officials they are logging the surge in complaints even as they note that overall flight volume has not dramatically increased.
What the county can and cannot do
Despite the local uproar, federal law gives the FAA exclusive control over navigable airspace and the assignment of flight routes, which means counties and cities cannot simply rewrite a published approach on their own. The basic authority over airspace use is laid out in Cornell Law School. That legal setup does not leave communities completely powerless, though. Counties can commission technical studies, file formal requests for changes with the FAA, work with pilots and operators on outreach, and beef up how they collect and report noise complaints. Napa County materials say officials will keep up public engagement through the Airport Advisory Commission and its noise working group while the Coffman Associates study is underway, according to a meeting recap from Napa County…