The FAA and National Park Service (NPS) completed an air tour management plan (ATMP) and environmental assessment for Canyon de Chelly National Monument in Arizona on December 19, ending tours over the park. The operating parameters, which prohibit air tours over the monument below 5,000 feet agl or within one-half mile of the park boundary, take effect 180 days from the signing of the plan.

Although Canyon de Chelly was exempted from the requirement to have an ATMP, the NPS withdrew the exemption on Nov. 2, 2017. Parks with fewer than 50 air tour flights per year are exempted from the ATMP requirement, but the NPS has the right to withdraw such exemptions. In its study of Canyon de Chelly activity, the FAA found that tours averaged 43 per year from 2017 through 2019, and these were flown with fixed-wing airplanes such as a Cessna 207 operated by Southwest Safaris.

Papillon Grand Canyon Helicopters, one of the largest air tour operators in the Southwest U.S., doesn’t operate at Canyon de Chelly but is deeply involved in the helicopter and fixed-wing air tour business. “Although Papillon has had no interim operating authority at Canyon de Chelly, we disagree with eliminating tour flights over any national park,” chief operating officer John Becker said in a statement to AIN. “Papillon Helicopters has always been respectful on where and what altitudes we fly over sensitive areas and tribal parks.” Papillon's Grand Canyon flights are conducted under a voluntary agreement program that governs such operations.

The environmental assessment is fundamental to the restrictions imposed by the Canyon de Chelly ATMP. According to the FAA and NPS, “The plan prohibits commercial air tours over the park and within one-half mile outside its boundary to protect natural and cultural resources, sacred tribal places, wilderness areas, and visitor experiences.”

In the environmental assessment, a summary of a meeting of the Chinle Chapter House of the Navajo Nation noted that every commenter opposed air tours over Canyon de Chelly, “stating concerns about dangers to the residents, wildlife, livestock, and cultural resources from the noise and vibrations created by the aircraft, as well as privacy for the residents and users of the park. Some residents provide Jeep, horseback, and hiking tours for visitors and stated that the air tours are not needed.” 

Although the environmental assessment claimed that shutting down flights over Canyon de Chelly “will result in direct beneficial effects on the park’s acoustic environment,” the actual noise study didn’t seem to highlight a significant problem.

According to the study, the modeling examined “the duration of noise above 35 A-weighted dBA, the level at which wildlife may experience disturbance in quiet natural settings, and 52 dBA, the level at which speech is interrupted by noise, in order to determine the effects from commercial air tours. The modeling demonstrates that noise above 35 dBA will be expected less than five minutes a day over 69% of the ATMP planning area under current conditions. Air tour noise reaches 52 dBA across only 7% of the ATMP planning area under current conditions for less than five minutes a day.”

The FAA’s threshold for determining the significance of noise impacts is 65 dB, according to the assessment. Notably, the environmental assessment did not attempt to model the noise created by Jeep tours.

In further discussion of the environmental impact of air tours, the assessment noted that alternatives such as air tours over other areas in Canyon de Chelly or at reduced levels were rejected by the five Navajo Nation chapters that represent the Diné people living in and around the ATMP planning area (Chinle, Tsaile-Wheatfields, Nazlini, Lukachukai, and Sawmill Navajo chapters); representatives from Departments in the Navajo Nation executive branch; and the president of the Navajo Nation.

“Based on this information, the NPS determined that the air tours cause adverse impacts on the Park’s intangible and tangible cultural resources that were significant under [the National Parks Air Tour Management Act] and that air tours also cause significant adverse impacts on tribal lands,” the report states. 

“Prohibiting commercial air tours protects these lands' cultural and spiritual significance to the Navajo Nation,” said park superintendent Lyn Carranza. “Canyon de Chelly National Monument's air tour management plan honors the unique nation-to-nation relationship regarding decisions affecting the park and helps to preserve one of the most important archeological landscapes in the southwest.”

The NPS and FAA have implemented and are developing additional ATMPs or voluntary agreements for other national parks. “Each ATMP or voluntary agreement is developed to manage commercial air tours in a way that is consistent with the NPS's mission, the individual park's purposes, and the FAA's authority regarding aviation safety,” according to the FAA and NPS.