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, while creating more efficient flight paths, inadvertently concentrated aircraft noise over communities, leading to public complaints, lawsuits, and demands for the agency to be more proactive.
FAA officials acknowledge these issues and are implementing measures to reduce noise exposure, emphasizing the necessity of extensive collaboration among all aviation stakeholders (FAA, airlines, airports, communities, manufacturers, local governments).
Despite significant historical reductions in individual aircraft noise, the increased frequency of modern, quieter flights due to NextGen procedures has created new and amplified noise concerns for affected communities.
The FAA plans to improve community outreach through regional teams and an online noise portal, and is investing in research to better understand and mitigate noise impacts, including re-evaluating the 65-decibel noise threshold.

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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.