Airports call for quieter planes

Citation

(2003), "Airports call for quieter planes", Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, Vol. 75 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/aeat.2003.12775aab.029

Airports call for quieter planes

Airports call for quieter planes

The body representing British airports is calling for heightened international efforts to eliminate the noisiest aircraft from UK skies. The call was made in a speech to the Annual Conference of the Airport Operators Association, which recently took place in Brighton, UK.

In his speech, chief executive of the Association Keith Jowett pressed the UK Government to seek early international agreement to a timetable for phasing out the current noisiest aircraft combined with progressive improvements in the standards for future aircraft. Despite significant improvements over recent years the Airport Operators Association believes that more can and should be done to combat aircraft noise and that the improvements being sought are both realistic and technically achievable. The AOA recognises that many UK carriers are investing heavily in new and quieter aircraft and airports are working closely with their airline partners to encourage continued progress in this area.

In his speech Mr Jowett stated: “The forecast growth in air travel over the next 30 years will boost British trade, provide up to 200,000 extra jobs and offer affordable air travel and choice to the travelling public. But if this growth is to be delivered in a sustainable manner then we must do all we can to help minimise the future impact of increased air traffic movements on the communities living around airports.

Much has been achieved in reducing aircraft noise over the last 20 years but the technology exists to go a stage further and make future aircraft significantly quieter. We understand that the vast majority of new aircraft already meet the standards designed for 2006 – and a good proportion meet even more stringent targets – so we can and must do better.

We therefore call upon Government to press at EU and international levels for a timetable of progressive improvements to the generation of aircraft noise at source. Furthermore, we need to negotiate at international level for a deadline for removing the noisiest aircraft – so-called marginally compliant Chapter 3s – since no such time limit currently exists.

In response to the Government consultation papers on the future of aviation, British airports will be making concrete proposals for mitigating the impact of airport activity. We believe, however, that action to tackle noise at source is fundamental to the future sustainability of a growing air transport sector. Quite simply, quieter aircraft will make a real difference to the number of people affected by aircraft noise – now and in the future.”