Local residents are outraged over the noise coming from airplanes in and out of the Santa Barbara Airport.

“There’s been a huge increase since they expanded the airport and put in the larger runways,” Roswell Chevas said.

Dozens of residents attended an open house on Thursday evening at the Airport Administration Building.

“The big problem has been the last flight comes in at 12:30 in the morning, and the first flight goes out at 5:20 in the morning,” Chevas said. “You are getting less than five hours of sleep. By any standard, that would be considered not good health. The CIA uses that kind of sleep deprivation technique as an interrogation.”

There has been a rise in popularity at the airport, which has become a more attractive option for airlines, most recently the addition of Southwest.

However, with success comes problems. Larger planes make more noise, and residents increasingly complain that the number of flights and the sound of them are unbearable.

Airport Director Christopher Hastert expressed concern about the residents’ feelings, but he said that much of the issue is out of the city’s hands.

“Unfortunately, with changes to hub structures, the departures are a little bit early in the mornings, so a lot of that is out of the airport’s control to say you can’t take off until after 6 a.m.,” Hastert said. “We are limited in what we can do about that.”

He said that “in general,” the department is open to hearing people’s concerns.

“Anything you do in life, there’s always room for improvement,” Hastert said. “If we could even make some small strides to help, then we are opening to trying to work with the community, trying to work with the pilots, to make some adjustments.”

Hastert said it is “a very complex issue.”

Francisco Chacon lives in the unincorporated part of Santa Barbara County and said he is upset with the master plan. He said noise, pollution, traffic and safety are all major concerns, adding that the problems picked up in 2019.

“They are bringing in Southwest Airlines, which is like a discount airline,” Chacon said. “We got to get better pilots in here, better airlines, and not so many, either.”

Chacon also said the community has no representation because the airport is owned by the City of Santa Barbara, but it is surrounded by the city of Goleta and the unincorporated part of the county.

“We can’t vote them out and put someone in who is going to represent us,” Chacon said. “You have no representation, and they don’t care.”

The Santa Barbara Airport served more than 1.2 million passengers in 2022, and American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, Southwest Airlines and United Airlines serve the airport with 20 daily departures to 10 nonstop destinations — Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Oakland, Phoenix, Portland, Sacramento, San Francisco and Seattle.

The master plan is intended to provide the community and public officials with proper guidance for future development, which will satisfy aviation demands and be wholly compatible with the environment, according to the city.

Bob Hirsch bought his home in The Bluffs a year ago.

“When I came down to buy the house, I spent several hours in the backyard and maybe I heard four, five planes,” he said. “Today in the morning, I would say a plane came over my house every 10 to 12 minutes. There is an enormous change.”

He said he wants to know why the planes don’t shift their routes to 200 yards over the ocean.

“We have no voice to enable us to talk to someone about getting Southwest or the private planes to observe those rules,” he said.

Kitty Christen has lived in Rancho Goleta for 18 years and said she can hear the planes warming up in the morning.

“That is really loud,” she said. “That is almost more annoying than the takeout itself.”

Madlyn Monchamp said the planes leave after midnight and then take off at 5:15 a.m.

“You don’t get eight hours’ sleep,” she said. “It isn’t fair. It isn’t healthy for the community. Give us eight hours of sleep.”