People who live next to an LA airport frequented by jet-setters are complaining about the fumes getting worse

• More and more private jets, as well as charter planes, are using the Van Nuys Airport in LA, creating more fumes.
• People living in surrounding neighborhoods are complaining about the gas smells and jet noises.

Residents of neighborhoods surrounding the Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles are complaining about fumes and noise as a growing number of private jets use the airport.

The amount of ultrafine particles emitted from the jets is growing, and they have been linked to different cardiovascular and respiratory conditions, the Los Angeles Times reported.

VNY, the call letters for Van Nuys Airport, is a general aviation airport, meaning it's for public use, and does not usually have commercial service. It was listed as the busiest general aviation airport in the US by General Aviation News in 2020.

Sue Steinberg, a resident of Lake Balboa just west of VNY since 1986, told the LA Times that she "never had a problem," but now "the fumes are unbelievably bad."

Another San Fernando Valley resident told the LA Times she wouldn't let her son go outside because of the fumes.

Private jets, which started becoming popular in the 1960s, are now under more scrutiny for their environmental impact.

When Kylie Jenner posted on Instagram a photo of her and boyfriend Travis Scott with their private jets in July, some commented, asking why they have to be eco-conscious while Jenner and other wealthy people fly around emitting carbon into the atmosphere.

Per passenger, private jets create five to 14 times more pollution than commercial planes, according to Transport and Environment. The European clean transport campaign group also found that private jets create 50 times more pollution than trains, and that the divide will keep growing as jets get larger.

In 2020, there was a 300% increase year over year in first-time private jet fliers, Robb Report reported. Richard Koe, a managing director at data management and analysis firm WingX, told the LA Times that 2022 has been "a record year," for private jet traffic around the world.

But private jets aren't the only planes that use VNY. Charter planes, which allow single fliers to buy a ticket to travel specific but unscheduled routes, also use it. Because some charter flights on specific types of planes are allowed from the airport by the Federal Aviation Administration, it creates a "loophole," Lake Balboa resident Suzanne Gutierrez-Hedges told the LA Times.

"It's turned Van Nuys into a commercial airport," she said, adding that she and her neighbors say, "We die so the 1% can fly!"

People living around the airport shared possible solutions with the LA Times.

Gutierrez-Hedges said she wanted to see a curfew for private jet take-offs and landings, and a study on the air quality. Steinberg pushed for an environmental buffer between the airport and residential areas.