Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise

LADACAN’s Noise Maps

To establish the boundaries within which the most common aircraft operating at Luton can be expected to cause significant disturbance, in 2006 two members of LADACAN undertook a noise survey using simple hand-held meters. The intention was to establish contours within which the maximum noise levels are likely to exceed 70 dB(A), depending upon the precise track of the aircraft. Outside this area, noise events above 70 dB(A) should occur only rarely.

This level was chosen because:

• it is comfortably above the level (65 dB(A)) above which noise is known to interrupt normal conversation;
• it is the lowest level reported by the Airport operator for departing aircraft at its monitoring points; and
• it would correspond to the N70=0 contour.

The mapping was carried out for 4 types of movements: easterly take-offs and landings, and westerly take-offs and landings. Only measurements of noise produced by Boeing 737 and Airbus A319/A320 aircraft were included in the exercise as these are by far the most common types flying at Luton which dominate the published average noise contours and they could easily be identified from the colours of easyJet, Ryanair and Wizz.

The map below shows the contours produced for the 4 modes of Airport operation. We have overlaid the counts of complaints from the 2005 Annual Monitoring Report (AMR) to demonstrate that our contours relate more closely to the public’s concerns than do the official average noise (Leq) contours(shown in solid black).

Right-click on the map to download a high resolution (3.7 MB) copy of our map (choose “Save target as . . “).