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 Manchester 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, as shown in the table below:

Money raised from noisy aircraft penalties is donated to the Manchester 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.
• The noise impact of the Airport’s operation is outlined in Section 106 planning agreement and states that noise shall be measured on an annual basis against the agreed NAP metrics, but shall in any event, not exceed the terms of:
  • The average maximum noise level of the noisiest 10% of departing air traffic movements, which was 89.2dB(A) in 1992.
  • The modelled area of the standardised average mode 60dBLAeq 16-hour (0700-2300) 92-day summer noise contour, which was 33.6km2 in 1992.
  • The modelled area of the standardised average mode 60dBLAeq 8-hour
• 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 90% 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.
• 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.
  • Manchester Airport enforces restrictions to reduce noise pollution, particularly during the night (23:00-07:00). Aircraft with a QC8 or QC16 rating are prohibited during these hours due to their high noise levels. Additionally, there is a scheduling ban on QC4 aircraft during the core night (23:30-06:00) as part of the Noise Action Plan. Furthermore, the possibility of implementing a scheduling ban for quieter QC2 aircraft is being explored to further minimize noise disruption.

The Airport’s Noise and Operations Monitoring 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.

An example of a Continuous Descent Approach:

Below is a video which explains the Continuous Descent Approach procedure: