Bay Area Parks Air Tour Agreement Opens for Comment

The FAA and National Park Service (NPS) are requesting comments on a proposed voluntary agreement for commercial air tour operations at four prominent national parks in California’s San Francisco Bay Area: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park, Point Reyes National Seashore, and Muir Woods National Monument.

Published to the Federal Register on December 2, the proposed voluntary agreement details exactly where, when, and how aerial sightseeing tours are permitted to fly over or near those Bay Area parks. Operators and other stakeholders may submit comments to the NPS website until January 2 at 10:59 p.m. PST (1:59 a.m. EST on January 3). 

Under the National Parks Air Tour Management Act of 2000, commercial air tour operators are required to obtain FAA approval before conducting aerial sightseeing tours over a national park. The FAA and NPS may enter into voluntary agreements with commercial air tour operators to establish operating conditions that protect and preserve the environment and the visitor experience. For example, an agreement may seek to mitigate noise by imposing minimum flight distances, restricted operating hours, and annual or daily flight limits.

The newly proposed Bay Area voluntary agreement includes 1,000- to 2,500-foot agl minimums above several specific sites to protect nesting seabird colonies and marine mammals. It implements a 1,500-foot lateral minimum distance from Alcatraz Island, prohibits flights over Muir Woods National Monument, and bars helicopters from Point Reyes National Seashore.

It also features new “quiet technology” incentives that would allow some operators of less noisy aircraft to fly extended hours, with eligibility determined on a case-by-case basis.

This voluntary agreement is intended to replace an Air Tour Management Plan (ATMP) that the FAA and NPS finalized in January 2023 but was vacated by court order in November 2024. In a lawsuit filed against the FAA by the Marin Audubon Society, a D.C. Circuit court struck down the ATMP, finding that the FAA and NPS failed to properly conduct the environmental impact review required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). 

Voluntary agreements like the Bay Area proposal offer a more flexible and expedited alternative to developing ATMPs, which involve a lengthy and resource-intensive regulatory process. For some national parks, ATMPs have taken more than two decades to finalize, while many still have ATMPs working through the approval process.