Noise complaints to Palm Beach County airport skyrocket after Mar-a-Lago flight restrictions
By Jake Shore
January 22, 2026 at 6:19 PM EST
Noise complaints to the Palm Beach International Airport increased tenfold last year after federal authorities restricted planes from flying over President Donald Trump’s Palm Beach club, Mar-a-Lago.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision, requested by the U.S. Secret Service, caused PBI flights to be diverted to narrow paths above Palm Beach and West Palm Beach neighborhoods, unused to the air traffic.
For the first 10 months of 2025, PBI reported 58 noise complaints. From October 20, 2025 — when the “temporary flight restriction” went into effect — to the first week of January 2026, the airport received 622 noise complaints, according to airport spokesperson Rebeca Krogman.
The restriction impacts a one-mile radius over Mar-a-Lago and is in effect even when Trump is not in Palm Beach.
READ MORE: Palm Beach is pushing to change no-fly zone restrictions over President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
“ (At) 3:24 AM, a flight flew over our house just a few hundred feet above us and just woke up the entire neighborhood,” said Palm Beach resident and venture capitalist, David Shok, on Thursday. “All of our neighbors were talking about the fact they couldn't get back to sleep again that morning.”
Shok, who founded the Quiet Skies Coalition, spoke at a Citizens' Committee on Airport Noise meeting on Thursday morning.
The committee updated the public on efforts to measure plane noise, tweaks by the FAA to its flight paths to provide some relief and current litigation.
In mid-December, attorneys from Palm Beach County, as well as the city of West Palm and the town of Palm Beach, challenged the FAA’s rule change in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.
The Federal Aviation Administration’s decision, requested by the U.S. Secret Service, caused PBI flights to be diverted to narrow paths above Palm Beach and West Palm Beach neighborhoods, unused to the air traffic.
For the first 10 months of 2025, PBI reported 58 noise complaints. From October 20, 2025 — when the “temporary flight restriction” went into effect — to the first week of January 2026, the airport received 622 noise complaints, according to airport spokesperson Rebeca Krogman.
The restriction impacts a one-mile radius over Mar-a-Lago and is in effect even when Trump is not in Palm Beach.
READ MORE: Palm Beach is pushing to change no-fly zone restrictions over President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club
“ (At) 3:24 AM, a flight flew over our house just a few hundred feet above us and just woke up the entire neighborhood,” said Palm Beach resident and venture capitalist, David Shok, on Thursday. “All of our neighbors were talking about the fact they couldn't get back to sleep again that morning.”
Shok, who founded the Quiet Skies Coalition, spoke at a Citizens' Committee on Airport Noise meeting on Thursday morning.
The committee updated the public on efforts to measure plane noise, tweaks by the FAA to its flight paths to provide some relief and current litigation.
In mid-December, attorneys from Palm Beach County, as well as the city of West Palm and the town of Palm Beach, challenged the FAA’s rule change in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals.