Santa Barbara Airport officials report approach changes, pilots to get new lighting control; noise group seeks federal help

Director Chris Hastert told the Santa Barbara Airport Commission on March 13 that several Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) navigation changes are reducing available instrument approaches at Santa Barbara Airport and staff are pressing regulators for fixes.

Hastert said pilots will soon be able to control airport lighting after hours with a new pilot-controlled system. “Pilot controlled lighting ... is ready to go at the flip of a switch,” Hastert said, adding the change will allow pilots to reduce lighting after the tower closes and will save energy costs.

The larger operational concern, he told commissioners, is that FAA-published minimums for the airport’s instrument landing system (ILS) were raised after trees on a nearby property encroached into an approach path. Hastert said the trees were removed quickly after the airport worked with the property owner, but the FAA’s approach redesign process moved forward and the published minimums are now higher, making some arrivals in foggier conditions more difficult.

“The minimums for the ILS have been raised,” Hastert said. He told the commission that staff had expected an April 2026 update but that pressure from airport stakeholders moved the publication up to February (year not specified in the discussion). Hastert said staff are continuing to press the FAA to restore the prior minimums or otherwise improve the published approaches.

Hastert also reported three related changes: a nationwide removal of GPS overlay approaches to existing VOR procedures, a GPS stand‑alone approach that has not yet been designed to replace the overlay, and an erroneous FAA listing that the VOR approach was “not available at night.” He said the airport tower was coordinating with the FAA approach design team to issue a NOTAM (Notice to Air Missions) to allow night use of the VOR approach pending a permanent correction.

Commissioners questioned how long fixes might take. Vice Chair Jeremiah asked whether the VOR outage would make approaches to Runway 25 unusable if the Gaviota VOR station were out of service; Hastert said he would follow up with the technical details. The commission was told the tower expected the VOR-night NOTAM to be addressed in the next charting cycle.

Commissioner Bowen asked about the noise working group’s progress on getting flights to turn out to sea before 6 a.m. Hastert said he had reached out to air traffic control and that the airport and noise working group are pushing the issue but have not yet secured commitments from the Los Angeles Center. He also said federal changes affecting tower staff and contractors have complicated scheduling for future noise‑group meetings.

The commission recorded no formal action on the approach changes during the meeting; Hastert said staff are continuing to press the FAA and will report back.

Ending — Commissioners encouraged affected pilots and operators to file reports (Hastert suggested FAA ASAP reports) to document operational impacts and assist efforts to accelerate FAA corrections.