Complaints caused by aircraft operations: an assessment of annoyance by noise level and time of day

The impact of aircraft movements on the local community surrounding an international airport was investigated using airport data on complaints, noise monitoring, aircraft flight paths and movements to assess annoyance due to noise level and time-of-day. As predicted, the louder the noise the more complaints were generated, with twice the complaints per movement at 110-114 PNdB compared with 74-79 PNdB. The hourly patterns in flight frequency and complaints were clearly distinct. Calculations of the complaints per aircraft movement for each hour of the day showed a striking 24 It pattern with night flights (23.00-06.00) causing on average nearly five times more complaints than the rest of the day (06.00-23.00). The time of the greatest propensity to complain about aircraft noise was between 01.00 and 02.00 and the lowest between 08.00 and 09.00. The circadian pattern in sensitivity to aircraft noise could be used to inform the development of airport operations and flight movements to minimize community disturbance. (C) 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.