Month: September 2020

The aviation industry has seen progressive improvements in aircraft design and operational procedures. The benefits of these improvements can be seen in our annual noise contours.​​

The following maps show how our summer noise contours (57dB LAeq day and night) have varied over time. An LAeq Contour is a measure of average noise at a stated level (in this case 57dB) over a given time period which is the summer 92 days between 16th June and 15th September. The ‘day’ refers to the 16 hour time period between 07:00 and 23:00. The ‘night’ refers to the 8 hour time period between 07:00 and 23:00. Over this period, the number of aircraft movements have also changed. In particular, due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, daytime operations largely ceased. This accounts for the reduction in contour size in 2020 and 2021.

You can find out more by watching this video:

The following map shows the most recent 16-hour Summer 92 day and 8-hour night noise contour, produced independently by Bickerdike Allen Partners, which is modelled using AEDT software. ​​Using the slider on the map, the various contours can be viewed.

Sound Insulation Grant Scheme

The East Midlands Airport Sound Insulation Scheme (SIGS) is designed to help the people who are affected most by noise from aircraft and the airport. The scheme has helped many homeowners close to the airport to improve the sound insulation of their homes.

The households that the scheme applies to are in a boundary surrounding the airport. Within the boundary, any building (or part of a building) which is being used as a domestic dwelling (a home) may be eligible for a grant, as long as it was built before January 2002. 

For more information about our SIGS scheme please see our SIGS Brochure.

The SIGS brochure includes a map which shows the boundary for the scheme and the different zones within it, as well as details of how to find out whether you are eligible, and the contact details of our managing agent.

Our SIGS programme was introduced in 2002 to offer financial support for the sound insulation of the properties most affected by aircraft noise. It was expanded in 2007 following a consultation as part of our 2006 Master Plan. The current SIGS (as expanded in 2007) is based on noise contours for night-time aircraft movements in the summer period of 2001. The scheme includes dwellings that were exposed to average night-time noise levels (LEQ) of at least 55 decibels (dB(A)) and/or are regularly exposed to single aircraft noise events (SEL) of at least 90dB(A) at night.

Due to the efforts of the airport and our airlines, including ongoing investment in newer and quieter aircraft, the airport’s noise contours are now considerably smaller than the noise contours in 2001 which have been used to define our SIGS boundaries. To illustrate this, the area affected by average night-time noise greater than 57dB in summer 2001 was 12.2km² – in 2015 this area had reduced to 8.6km². Despite this reduction in our noise footprint, we have maintained the size of the area which benefits from the scheme.