The balanced approach

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has developed the concept of a ”balanced approach” to aircraft noise management. This approach incorporates four key elements to the mitigation of noise levels at airports, which has been endorsed under the EU Directive 598/2014. This aligns with the UK Government policy on aviation noise, which can be found here.

• Reducing noise at source: Reduce the noise produced by the aircraft itself through continual design and engineering improvements. Over the past 30 years efforts in this category have led to dramatic reductions in aircraft noise where newer aircraft are much quieter than their predecessors.
• Land-use planning and management: Support local and national Governments to manage land use around airports and under flight paths to limit the number of new residential properties built in areas exposed to aircraft noise.
• Noise abatement operating procedures: Encourage aircraft operators to fly their aircraft in the optimal low-noise configuration and work with air traffic control (ATC) to enable that configuration.
• Operating restrictions: Banning or limiting operations, this is the most difficult part of the balanced approach to implement as it has to align and operate within other Governmental restrictions.

How East Midlands Airport manages noise

Knowing where aircraft fly and how well they are complying with airport noise mitigation rules helps everyone to improve operations and keep the noise exposure to the absolute minimum. The airport is acknowledged as a noisy place, but steps can be taken to abate that noise as much as possible. Our noise strategy can be viewed here.

• Reducing noise at source: Encouraging airlines to operate modern, low noise aircraft.
  • We currently operate a noisy aircraft penalty scheme which penalises aircraft which exceed published noise limits at night (between 23:00 and 07:00). Money raised from noisy aircraft penalties is donated to the East Midlands Airport Community Fund.
• Land-use planning and management: Regularly produce noise contours for use by Government Authorities to manage the planning process. These contours show the typical noise exposure for an average day over the year.
  • We operate within an agreed planning condition set by North West Leicestershire District Council, so that our ‘night noise envelope’ (based on the 55dB L_Aeq 8-hour contour ) will not exceed an area of 16km². The airport is operating well within this limit.
• Noise abatement operating procedures: Encourage aircraft operators to fly their aircraft in the optimal low-noise configuration and where appropriate monitoring compliance against these procedures with data reported as part of our regular reports.
  • We have a target that 95% of arriving aircraft will perform a Continuous Descent Approach (CDA).
  • Continue to promote the use of reduced engine taxi at the airport where it is practical and beneficial to do so.
  • Continue to promote and report figures for: Continuous climb departures (CCDs) enable aircraft to keep climbing after take-off until they reach their cruise altitude. Continuous climbs can increase the height of the aircraft closer to the airport and make noise levels less audible.
  • Continue to promote and report figures for: Track Keeping Performance. A noise preferential route (NPR) is one that directs an aircraft along an agreed route to avoid areas of population.
  • Continue to promote: Intersection Departures at night-time. The departing aircraft begin their take-off roll part way down the runway. This procedure is used by aircraft departing Runway 27. It reduces noise in Kegworth by moving aircraft further away from the village.
• Operating restrictions: Where appropriate, the airport tracks compliance against the restrictions, which include night flight restrictions with compliance reported as part of our regular reports.
  • East Midlands Airport prohibits airlines from scheduling and operating the noisiest aircraft types at night 23:00 – 07:00. These are classified as having a Quota Count (QC) of 4, 8 or 16. Any late running aircraft of these types are prohibited from operating during the night period, unless there are exceptional circumstances such as live stock or perishable cargo. Should these operations occur under exceptional circumstances, the operator would also pay a surcharge to the Airport Community Fund.

The Airport’s Noise Monitoring and Management System (ANOMS) is configured to analyse compliance with all of these procedures, providing data and analytics to airport staff. This data can be extremely useful to determine trends, identify non-compliant performance, and could inform future planning such as to engage directly with the airline to improve overall performance.