aircraft noise

Before April 2017, aircraft departing from Newcastle Airport were dispersed across a wide area and everybody got some respite from aircraft noise.

After April 2017 Newcastle Airport started using satellite technology to fly departing aircraft down a narrow route. Now, people under and close to the flight path centre line now get no respite. The Airport didn’t tell us it was going to do this or what the effects would be.

Boeing 777 overhead

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Noise Action Plan 2024 - 2028

Our comments

The Airport's Noise Action Plan

The Airport regularly updates it Noise Action plan on how it proposes to manage noise. You can see and download the latest version via the pdf link in the left.

As with all the previous versions we've seen, we think it is entirely inadequate. It has no clearly measurable targets that can be monitored and evaluated and it gives no deadlines by which any such targets, if they could be measured, might be achieved.

See our detailed comments via the pdf link on the left..

Monitoring aircraft noise

Newcastle Airport, like other airports, monitors the noise it creates. Newcastle has contracted this out to an external contractor so that there is no conflict of interest (we thought there was - we were wrong and we apologise). The contractor provides the Airport with reports and information derived from the data collected.

However, we think detailed aircraft noise data for each flight should be publicly available as well as summary report so everybody can see exactly what is going on. Also, the official analytics that airports use to check how much noise they are making, average noise across chunks of time. This means that the noisy flight that wakes you up at 6 in the morning, for example, is smoothed out. We think, as do many others, that this is something else that needs to change.

Satnav and aircraft noise: also see respite

Basic Area Navigation (B-RNAV) is what was in operation across the UK up to the start of 2017.

Under B-RNAV, aircraft could fly up to 5 miles either side of the centre line of a flight path. For Newcastle Airport, this looked like the image to the left. This 5 mile lateral dispersion meant that the noise was shared and less frequent and occasional bad noise events mattered less. Most people could live with that.

Aircraft Noise Action Group wants Newcastle Airport to revert to this mode of operation and stop using the P-RNAV enforced 1 mile lateral dispersion. Newcastle Airport is not short of airspace .

Precision Area Navigation (P-RNAV) is what came into operation at Newcastle the start of 2017 (and at some other UK airports). Under P-RNAV, aircraft are limited to flying 1 mile either side of the centre line of a flight path. For Newcastle Airport, this looks like the image above.

The 1 mile lateral dispersion means that noise is not shared, is more frequent and bad noise events happen more often and therefore matter a lot more. A lot of people can't live with this. Aircraft Noise Action Group wants Newcastle Airport to stop using this mode of operation and revert to using the 5 mile lateral dispersion in force before 2017.