South Tampa homeowners upset over TIA air traffic

Tampa (FOX 13) - Construction at Tampa International Airport is diverting planes right over South Tampa neighborhoods.

Lori Nelson isn't too thrilled with the increased aircraft noise near her home.

"It's become a lot more prevalent," Nelson said.

The more frequent-flyovers are due to construction that began in February at TIA as part of a billion dollar expansion and improvement project.

Since then, more planes, including corporate and commercial airlines, are using the runway on the east side of the airport.  That sends loud planes flying right over some expensive Tampa real-estate.

"It has definitely increased since construction started," Nelson said.

Several other homeowners told us the noise can be overwhelming.

"We are sensitive to the complaints we get from residents," said John Tiliacos.

Tiliacos is TIA's vice president of operations and customer service.  He says using the noise sensitive runway is a safety move.

"We are never going to comprise safe operation of the airport," Tiliacos said.

He says it's only supposed to be used between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., to be as little a bother as possible.

"In cases where a pilot is not complying with our voluntary noise abatement it could be because of a medical issue, an aircraft issue, an operational issue of some sort," he said.

The noise will likely continue through September 2016.  Once the work at the airport is done, flights will go back to their normal patterns.