FAA Responds to Call of Lawmakers to Mitigate Noise Impacts

More effective flight path structures can have the unintended consequence of compounding noise concerns.

Michael Wildes

Friday, March 18, 2022 at 05:00 PM ET

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According to the FAA, noise exposure in the past half-century has decreased five-fold. [File Photo: Shutterstock]

Key Takeaways:

The FAA's NextGen modernization efforts, designed for more efficient flight paths, inadvertently concentrated aircraft noise over certain communities, leading to widespread complaints, lawsuits, and calls from lawmakers for more proactive engagement.
The FAA acknowledges past failures in community engagement and emphasizes that effectively addressing aircraft noise requires extensive collaboration among all aviation stakeholders, as the agency cannot solve the issue alone.
While individual aircraft have become significantly quieter over decades, the increased frequency of flights over specific areas due to NextGen procedures has intensified noise concerns. The FAA is now implementing new measures like enhanced community outreach, an online noise reporting portal, and research into noise impact.

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As the FAA began implementing its NextGen efforts to modernize the national air traffic control system, they discovered that in some cases, the more effective flight paths lead to more noise over communities. That forced the agency to deal with disgruntled citizens, non-partisan accountability agencies, and litigious communities, so much so that now lawmakers want the FAA to be more proactive before things escalate.

On Thursday, FAA officials told legislators that the agency was taking steps toward reducing the impact of aircraft noise exposure.