ANMC Minutes - December 2025

Meeting Date/Time: 11 December 2025, 1300H-1500H
Meeting Location: Online (Microsoft Teams)
In Attendance
Chair:	Wendy Avis	Director, Climate and Environment - YVRAA
Secretariat:	Rachel Min-Brown	Environmental Analyst - YVRAA
Participants:	Kevin Eng Ron Sorensen Hugh Campbell Erin Newman-Renwick Sunita Lucertini Mark Guerin Terry Hiebert Ammaar Ghogawala Brenden McBain Mark Cheng	Staff Representative - City of Richmond Citizen Representative - City of Surrey Staff Representative - City of Surrey Citizen Representative - City of Vancouver Staff Representative - City of Vancouver Musqueam Float Plane Operators Association Noise Information Coordinator - YVRAA Manager, Climate and Environment - YVRAA Supervisor, Noise Abatement & Air Quality - YVRAA
Guest:	Ian Giesbrecht Trevor Cheng Kate Macrae	NAV CANADA BKL Communications Specialist - YVRAA

1.0 Welcome and Introduction

Wendy Avis welcomed attendees and acknowledged the unceded, ancestral, traditional territory of the Musqueam Nation on which YVR operates.

2.0 Airport Updates

Wendy provided the following updates:

Traffic Update
YVR is on track to break the record annual passenger number, having welcomed 22.8 million passengers between January and October 2025. This is a 3.1% increase compared to the same period in 2024. While we saw an increase in the domestic and international sectors, the transborder sector was down compared to 2024 due to tariffs and geopolitical issues.
North Runway Modernization Program
Paving and major improvements work on the north runway has been completed, and the runway was returned to its full level of service as planned in October. To document the project, a series of four behind-the-scenes videos was produced, including one focusing on collaboration with Musqueam. The videos can be viewed on YVR Newsroom.
Haul for Hope
The third annual Haul for Hope event was hosted in September. Over 70 YVR employees participated and raised over $45,000 for Hope Air to support air travel and accommodation for healthcare patients living in rural areas.
Emergency Exercise
The annual full-scale emergency exercise was held on October 2, which involved over 100 participants and focused on security protocols in preparation for FIFA World Cup.
Deep Turnaround
In partnership with Aviation Solutions, YVR is deploying Deep Turnaround, an AI-powered platform to optimize aircraft turnaround operations at gates. Integrated with the cameras at the gates and the airport’s Digital Twin, it allows real-time tracking and collects data to support smarter decisions and on-time performance.

3.0 Vancouver Airspace Modernization Project

Project Milestones and Implementation Update:

Ian Giesbrecht advised that the new Standard Terminal Arrival Routes were introduced on 27 November 2025 and the operations are going well, both from the perspective of air traffic control and the airlines.

Phase 2 of the Project, involving the introduction of the new RNP routes, is still scheduled to proceed as planned in February 2026.

Community Concerns:

NAV CANADA reported they have received one concern about the new route.
YVR reported that, as of 11 December 2025, 40 concerns or inquiries from nine residents have been received from areas of Vancouver, North Burnaby, and Coquitlam, with most concerns associated with aircraft using the new north downwind segment. The YVR noise management team investigates and responds to residents with information about the Project, the changes that affect their area, and refers them to the Project website for more detailed information.

Noise Monitoring and Analysis:

Mark Cheng advised that YVR has been working with the City of Burnaby staff to secure a site on City owned property in North Burnaby for the installation of noise monitoring equipment to help support the understanding sound levels from aircraft using the new routes. The plan was to have the equipment installed before the new routes were introduced, but we have experienced delays in securing the necessary permissions from the City of Burnaby.

While we continue our discussions with the City of Burnaby, YVR retained the services of BKL, a local acoustic consulting firm, to perform temporary monitoring on 18 November 2025, before the introduction of the new routes.

The objective of BKL’s monitoring exercise was two-fold:

Monitor at a location in Central Burnaby under the now old north downwind segment to assess the benefit from having air traffic moved away from this area.
Monitor at a location in North Burnaby to collect baseline community sound levels before the introduction of the new routes over this area.

Noise monitoring was undertaken between Noon and 4PM on 18 November 2025. This period was selected to coincide with runway 26 being in use as this is the more impactful operation because aircraft are generally at lower altitudes over the area compared to when runway 08 is in use.

The two locations that were identified for BKL’s monitoring exercise and the arrival flight tracks during the monitoring period are illustrated in FIGURE 1.

During the four-hour monitoring period, there were 22 aircraft flyovers of the Central Burnaby monitoring location. Of these, 14 were propeller aircraft, 2 were narrow body aircraft, and six were with wide body aircraft.

Mark introduced Trevor Cheng who presented the results of noise monitoring at the Central Burnaby site (located at a small park near 5462 Woodsworth Street).

Trevor advised that peak aircraft noise levels during fly-over events ranged from between 54 to 68 dBA and the elevated noise levels typically lasted less than 30 seconds per event. It was noted that there were several louder events associated with other sources in the community – such as passing cars and trucks, construction activities, etc.

Aircraft noise accounted for about 5% of total sound energy during the monitoring period, with most other community sources contributing a much higher proportion.

Given the new airspace design, aircraft noise events at the Central Burnaby monitoring location would be reduced as the arriving aircraft would be moved further away, while the other community noise sources would remain unchanged.

Next steps:

YVR will continue discussions with Burnaby about the permanent noise monitoring terminal.
YVR will conduct a second round of monitoring with BKL in the new year, and a summary of the data will be included in NAV Canada's 180-day post implementation report.

Ian clarified that the post implementation report would likely be issued in Fall 2026 as work on the report will begin 180-days after full implementation, including the RNP procedures in February 2026.

With regards to noise monitoring data, Mark stated that the data is for educational purposes only and is not used for regulatory compliance. Aircraft meet required Transport Canada noise and emission standards to operate in Canada, and these standards are based on international standards developed by the International Civil Aviation Organization. Additionally, there are no Canadian Aviation Regulations or noise abatement procedures where compliance is based on measured noise levels, and there are no set noise limits that would dictate an operational change to air traffic control operations or the redesign of airspace.

4.0 Web Material Review

Rachel provided updates on the work to review and update noise management web materials, which was identified as one of work focus areas for 2025.

The work is underway with support from YVR Communications to enhance clarity and accessibility of noise management web content and materials, incorporating feedback collected from Committee volunteers. As part of this effort, factsheets currently in PDF format will be converted into web pages to enhance accessibility and searchability. In addition, a new noise management video is currently being developed, focused on night-time noise mitigation measures.

The updated web content and video will be published in January, and Committee members will be notified once they go live.

5.0 Q4 Summary

Rachel presented the summary of noise concerns received in January-November 2025. A total of 1,094 concerns were received from 160 individuals during this period.

7.0 Other Business

Noise Management 101
YVR noise management staff propose to provide educational presentations on various aviation noise management topics at upcoming Committee meeting to help support knowledge and information exchange. A list of proposed topics will be provided to Committee members in the new year to help identify topics and prepare a presentation schedule.
2026 FIFA World Cup
YVR is currently preparing operational plans to support FIFA. These plans may include temporary changes to airport operations to effectively accommodate anticipated increase in air traffic during the event. YVR noise management staff will report back to the Committee at the Q1 2026 meeting on any plans that affect aircraft operations and noise abatement.
2026 South Runway Maintenance Schedule
YVR teams are currently reviewing the 2026 airfield project and maintenance schedule to determine the required runway closures to support the work. The current plan is to perform maintenance on the South Runway every Monday night into Q1 2026. Once we have defined our project and maintenance schedule for the remainder of the year, we will share this information with the Committee.
2026 Meeting Dates
- Thursday 5 March 2026
- Thursday 17 September 2026
- Thursday 3 December 2026

MEETING ADJOURNMENT

Wendy thanked the attendees for their time and adjourned the meeting at 2:25PM.

Next Regular ANMC Meeting: March 5, 2026