Noisy facts…did you know?

The noise you hear on the ground is affected by the weather. 
This is because weather affects how noise travels through the air. Sometimes aircraft will sound louder even though they aren’t doing anything different.

The direction and speed of the wind affects the direction in which aircraft land and take-off.
This is because aircraft have to land and take-off facing into the wind once the speed of the wind is above a certain level. 

So sometimes aircraft may fly over an area and other times they won’t. For this reason, you may see them passing over an area from one direction one day and from another direction the next.

When background noise (eg road traffic) is low, for example, in the evening – you may notice aircraft noise more.

Aircraft taking-off have to follow set routes called Noise Preferential Routes (NPRs). BUT only until they reach 4000ft.
The area you live in might not be under one of these routes but departing aircraft are allowed to fly over the area. 

The routes used by departing aircraft are like corridors – they are 3 kilometres wide and up to 4000ft high.
So, providing departing aircraft are within the three kilometre width while they are still under 4000ft high, they are “on-track”.

Sometimes departing aircraft stay on a Noise Preferential Route even after they reach 4000ft if Air Traffic Control wish them to do so. They may reach the end of the Route and still continue in the same direction. 
This is because the route is also a standard route which aircraft follow to certain destinations.

Departing aircraft have to meet noise limits. Arriving aircraft do not. 
There are three different limits depending on the time of day. The limits are most strict at night. BAA fines airlines whose aircraft break these limits and the money raised is channelled back into the local community.

Arriving aircraft don’t have set routes: Air Traffic Control give them individual instructions on where they want them to fly.
It is only at the last stage of the journey that you will see them one behind the other lining up to land on the runway.

Heathrow has two runways and one is used for landings and the other for take offs.
This is called Runway Alternation. It is a measure used at Heathrow to reduce noise close to the airport. Some areas a bit further away from the airport may benefit only partly from it. 

The position and numbers of aircraft in relation to your area may vary widely from day-to-day.
This is because there are several factors which affect how and when areas are overflown.

We have a Noise and Track Keeping system which we use to monitor the aircraft using Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports. We also use this system to answer your queries and complaints.
The system uses information directly from the Air Traffic Control radar to show  the tracks of aircraft so we can see accurately which areas have been overflown and at what height.

If you are thinking about moving house to an area around Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted we can advise you on how it is likely to be affected by aircraft noise using these airports.

Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted all have Consultative Committees which have members representing residents, as well as passengers and the many other organisations which have an interest in what happens at our airports.  If you would like to know more please visit the websites below.

Heathrow:
www.lhr-acc.org

Heathrow Airport Consultative Committee
Ground Floor
Heathrow Point Training Centre
234 Bath Road (off Mondial Way)
Hayes
UB3 5AP