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“When you look west of Sarcee Trail, it’s pretty much all pasture land. Why not look at flying along that instead of traversing the entire length of the city,” he said.

Photo by Jim Wells / Postmedia

“I just want to see if there’s an opportunity to have inbound flights coming in more to the west.”

Liepert said some of his constituents began making noise about the increase in air traffic over communities following the opening of the $600-million, 14,000-foot runway that opened to air traffic five years ago next month.

Its opening came soon after changes by Canada’s civil aviation authority, Nav Canada, to flight procedures in an effort to create more direct flights while improving safety and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. However, the changes also exposed some previously unaffected areas to a sudden influx of overhead air traffic.

According to the Calgary Airport Authority’s 2017 annual noise report, some 5,736 noise complaints were lodged, a drop from the 6,458 concerns tallied the previous year and the more than 10,000 registered in 2015. The federal report found that some 72 per cent of all complaints made in Calgary in 2017 came from five callers, with two individuals complaining more than 2,700 times between them.

The committee also heard that those living in the path of aircraft can have both their health and quality of life affected, ranging from general annoyance to hypertension.

West Calgary Coun. Jeff Davison said while he understands there are several agencies that will ultimately have a hand in any alterations to the current flight paths, if there’s an option that reduces the effects on communities it should be considered.