Overall noise levels

Overall noise levels – what about the future?
There are two things that we know about the future:

1. aircraft will continue to get quieter, but
2. there will be more of them

On this website we tell you about our work to reduce the noise levels.

Planes are also expanding: the new Airbus A380, which will be flying from the UK in winter 2007/spring 2008, will be able to carry half as many passengers again as today’s biggest plane, the Boeing 747. More passengers per flight helps to meet the demand for flying, without creating additional flights. The A380 has also been specifically designed to be quieter than a current Boeing 747.

Government policy on increased demand for flying
Of course, the predicted growth in flying will mean more flights in the South East of the UK.

As a result, Government policy says that there should be more airport capacity in the region. It says that a new runway should be built at Stansted, subject to planning approval; that if strict environmental criteria (including noise) are met at Heathrow, then a new short runway should be built there in 2015-2020, Finally, it
says that if Heathrow doesn’t meet those environmental criteria, a new runway should be built at Gatwick after 2019.

If a new runway is approved and built at Heathrow, it would mean that there are people who are not bothered by aircraft noise today who would be affected by new take-off flight paths and landing routes.

At the moment, the Government, the airport and others need to do a lot of work to know if and where a new runway could be built. For that reason, we don’t know yet who would be affected by that ‘new’ noise from any expanded airport.

There is more information on this website under, 'What BAA is doing about noise' section, about what measures we will take to help people who may find themselves experiencing new aircraft noise.