Aircraft Noise
- the main cause of opposition to the Airport

The overwhelming objection of people living nearby the Airport is noise. In December 2003 the Government, in its Aviation White Paper (ATWP), stated that its “basic aim is to limit and, where possible, reduce the number of people significantly affected by aircraft noise”.

Even using the woefully inadequate “official” indicator of disturbance, there has been no limiting at Luton: the number affected in the daytime doubled between 2002, when the noisiest planes were banned in Europe, and 2009. At night the increase was over 80 per cent.

In other pages, we look at the various ways in which aircraft noise can be quantified, monitored and controlled. We look at the particular problems at Luton and introduce our own noise maps which are more effective indicators of likely disturbance than the official measures.

We take a special look at night noise and, in the next few months, we will be considering how the tracks followed by aircraft affect disturbance on the ground.

Luton & District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise - site updated 11 August, 2010