HONOLULU — U.S. Rep. Ed Case, D-Hawaii, is asking the public to submit comments as the National Park Service and Federal Aviation Administration formulate long-overdue air-tour management plans for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and Haleakala National Park.

What You Need To Know

  • Congress passed the 2000 National Parks Air Tour Management Act requiring NPS and FAA to develop air-tour management plans for any National Park that records more than 50 overflights per year

  • The agencies have yet to produce a single plan.

  • Possible management alternatives for Haleakala and Hawaii Volcanoes range from no action to a ban on all air-tour flights below 5,000 within a half-mile of the park

  • Comments are being accepted until April 1

The agencies are considering a range of options, including an outright ban on commercial air-tour operations within the park areas and small aircraft at the state’s two national parks.

“Throughout our Hawaii, excessive unregulated commercial helicopter/small aircraft tour operations have heightened safety concerns in the air and on the ground and severely disrupted our communities and special places,” Case said in a statement released on Tuesday. “This has been especially true in our two treasured national parks, Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala, with pre-COVID overflights of 16,500 per year for Hawaii Volcanoes and 5,000 per year for Haleakala, some of the very highest in the entire National Park System.

“These flights disrupt communities on the way to and from the parks, destroy the serenity of these natural treasures, have significant impacts on the natural environment and soundscape, inhibit perpetuation of cultural connections to our landscapes, impede the preservation of endemic Hawaiian ecosystems and diminish visitors’ abilities to learn about and enjoy the parks’ resources,” said Case, who sits on the House Committee on Natural Resources and Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests, and Public Lands.

Congress passed the 2000 National Parks Air Tour Management Act requiring NPS and FAA to develop air-tour management plans for any National Park that records more than 50 overflights per year. The agencies have yet to produce a single plan.

In 2017, Hawaii Island Coalition Malama Pono and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility filed a lawsuit asking for NPS and FAA to draft air-tour plans or voluntary agreements for seven parks, including Hawaii Volcanoes and Haleakala, within two years. In May 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ordered the NPS and FAA to develop plans for 24 national parks, including the two Hawaii parks, by August 2022.

In their most recent quarterly progress report, the departments said they could not complete plans for eight of the parks by the deadline. The filing showed that it could take an additional year or more to complete plans for Hawaii Volcanoes, Haleakala, Mount Rushmore and Badlands.

“These agencies that are under court order precisely because of their unreasonable delay are now subjecting the U.S. Court of Appeals to even more unreasonable delay,” said PEER General Counsel Paula Dinerstein.

PEER filed a motion this month to suspend all overflights in parks that do not have a finalized air-tour management plan. 

As part of the process for developing air-tour management plans for the Hawaii parks, NPS is accepting comments on potential management alternatives, including no action; maximum action with a ban on air tours under 5,000 feet above ground within a half-mile of the parks; specific routes through the parks with per-day and annual caps on flights; and limited routes with caps for just Hawaii Volcanoes. 

“I will be submitting comments urging maximum protection for both of our parks,” Case said. “I will be saying basically that no company or person has the right to destroy our national parks for any reason, including tourism, that we have many other opportunities for different people of different abilities to enjoy our national parks, and that air tours are fundamentally inconsistent with the reasons for which we established our national parks to start with.” 

The deadline to submit comments is April 1. NPS is asking for “substantive comments” that elaborate on reasons for or against the specific proposed alternatives. 

To review the ATMP proposals and provide comment, click here for Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and here for Haleakala National Park.