A new set of temporary flight restrictions for the airspace over President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach will mean more noise from air traffic for other parts of the island and Palm Beach County for at least the next 12 months, officials said.
The new restrictions also mean that no aircraft can operate within a mile of Trump’s home, regardless of whether he is there.
The Federal Aviation Administration issued the new restrictions that took effect at 8 a.m. Oct. 20 and will remain in place 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until at least 8 a.m. Oct. 20, 2026, according to an FAA notice.
The new year-round restriction includes a 1-nautical-mile radius from the surface up to 2,000 feet in the airspace over Mar-a-Lago, constituting “a real ‘no-fly’ zone” that applies to all aircraft, including planes, blimps, helicopters and balloons, said Douglas Matthews, a flight instructor, military and civilian aircraft pilot, and board president for the Aero Club in Wellington.
The stronger restrictions to which Palm Beach County is accustomed will still go into effect when Trump is home, county officials said. Those restrictions include a radius of 10 nautical miles where most flights are banned, followed by a ring with a 30 nautical mile radius where more movement is allowed, according to the FAA.
The FAA did not return a request for comment. An automatic reply from an FAA press office email said the agency is not responding to routine media inquiries because of a lapse in funding during the federal government shutdown.
While the new temporary flight restrictions are less restrictive than what is put into place when Trump visits Palm Beach, surrounding communities to the north of Palm Beach’s primary east-west runway may see more air traffic, and more planes will use the “crosswind runway” that runs diagonally on the airport property, airport spokesperson Rebeca Krogman said.
Planes departing from PBIA via the primary east-west runway will be able to turn to the north, and that will cause communities to the northeast of the airport to see increased activity, Krogman said.
For Aero Club pilots, it’s not a big deal — just different, Matthews said.
“PBI Airport has to change the runways in use, not only for wind but for arriving and departing aircraft since they cannot overfly Mar-a-Lago, which is directly off the main runway,” he said. “Not only does it affect the runway use, it then flows on to affect the arrival and departure corridor paths.”
The airport uses a practice called fanning during busy times to allow for the federally regulated amount of separation between departing planes, and this can often cause planes departing from PBIA to the east to fly over areas farther south or north, County Commissioner Gregg Weiss said.
Weiss — whose backwards C-shaped District 2 includes a parts of West Palm Beach, Haverhill, Lake Worth Beach, Atlantis and suburban Palm Beach County — said people were largely prepared for more of that to happen upon Trump’s weekend returns during season.
“But I think they were surprised that this is going to be happening every day, even when he’s not here,” Weiss said.
Besides increased noise, the new restrictions also could cause delays because the airport will not be able to fan departing planes to the southeast as it has done in the past, he said. “It’s not usual to have delays in general because of it, but now that could exacerbate that a bit,” Weiss said.
People will need to be patient and plan accordingly for any connecting flights, he said.
“Other than that, there’s not really much else for any of us to do,” Weiss said. “Shut our windows, maybe.”
Weiss’ office on Facebook posted about the restrictions and cautioned constituents that more noise is possible is areas north of the east-west flight path.
Palm Beach County’s Department of Airports anticipates a rise in calls from people complaining about noise, his office said.
People can call the airports department’s Noise Abatement Office at 561-683-7242 or submit comments online at pbia.org/noise/noise-comments.
It’s important for people to report noise issues when they occur, Weiss told the Palm Beach Daily News.
Some officials in Palm Beach were caught off-guard by the new restrictions.
Council President Pro-Tem Lew Crampton, a member of Palm Beach International Airport’s Citizens’ Committee on Airport Noise, said he had not heard anything from the county about the restrictions.
The committee meets to discuss possible noise mitigation options and recommend solutions to complaints, according to the airport’s website.
Committee members at the Sept. 11 meeting discussed replacing the countywide monitors that track airport traffic noise, as well as adding new locations for monitors in Palm Beach County, Crampton said. The new restrictions were not discussed, he said.
Longtime North End resident Martin Klein, who sits on the airport noise committee and Palm Beach County’s Aviation and Airports Advisory Board, said he was shocked to learn of the new temporary flight restrictions from a Palm Beach Daily News reporter.
“If they’re going to leave it in place permanently, I suspect we’re going to get a plethora of complaints from people who rarely complain or never complain,” Klein said.
While he understands the need to protect the president, Klein said it surprises him a little bit that the FAA would issue the restrictions for times even when Trump is not home.
“When they use the word temporary, that means days or even weeks, but not this long,” he said of the yearlong temporary flight restrictions. “I would never question their statutory authority, but it does raise into question the need for it.”
The new set of restrictions could affect some sight-seeing flights or planes traveling along the coastline, which would have to either be above 2,000 feet or outside of the 1 nm ring, Matthews said.
Palm Beach Helicopters operates a few sightseeing tours, but not many, company president Dan Crowe said. He has operated out of the Palm Beach County Park Airport on Lantana Road since 1989, he said.
One sightseeing flight travels north to the Jupiter Inlet and lighthouse, then back south. That route would typically take them over Trump’s Palm Beach estate, but now tours will have to fly around the restricted area, Crowe said.
“If they particularly wanted to see Mar-a-Lago, they’re not going to be able to,” he said of sightseers.
It will be “a little bit of an inconvenience” and just add a couple of minutes to the flight, Crowe said.
The FAA uses temporary flight restrictions to restrict how aircraft operate over certain areas.
The VIP-level temporary flight restrictions issued by the FAA for presidential travel include a set of rules for aviators to follow. When pilots don’t follow those rules, it can lead to penalties for the pilot — and an interesting experience for those on the ground, who may be able to spot F-16 fighter jets rushing to intercept a wayward plane.
The inner ring is a 10 nautical mile radius where most flights are banned with the exception of approved law enforcement and air ambulance or other emergency flights, and regularly scheduled cargo and commercial passenger jets, according to FAA advisories. All emergency operations have to coordinate with air traffic control before takeoff.
More movement is allowed with the 30 nautical mile radius area, or outer ring, of the temporary flight restrictions. Aircraft can pass through but “not loiter,” FAA advisories say. All aircraft that do pass through the outer ring must have a specific flight plan filed with air traffic control, which will issue the plane a code. The pilot has to stay in contact with air traffic control throughout their time passing through the restricted area, the FAA said.
PBIA is planning a major expansion that includes the current project to increase the size of Concourse B, while also extending its south runway to 8,000 feet long from 3,200, county airports director Laura Beebe told the Town Council this year. That growth is driven largely by the jump in private air traffic, she said at the time.
“Due to the fact the restrictions are temporary, we do not anticipate an impact to long-term planning efforts at this time,” Krogman said.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Daily News: New airspace restrictions make Mar-a-Lago a ‘no-fly zone,’ even when Trump isn’t home
Reporting by Kristina Webb, Palm Beach Daily News / Palm Beach Daily News
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