Month: July 2020

The balanced approach

The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) has developed the concept of a ”balanced approach” to aircraft noise management. This approach incorporates four key elements to the mitigation of noise levels at airports, which has been endorsed under the EU Directive 598/2014. This aligns with the UK Government policy on aviation noise, which can be found here.

• Reducing noise at source: Reduce the noise produced by the aircraft itself through continual design and engineering improvements. Over the past 30 years efforts in this category have led to dramatic reductions in aircraft noise where newer aircraft are much quieter than their predecessors.
• Land-use planning and management: Support local and national Governments to manage land use around airports and under flight paths to limit the number of new residential properties built in areas exposed to aircraft noise.
• Noise abatement operating procedures: Encourage aircraft operators to fly their aircraft in the optimal low-noise configuration and work with air traffic control (ATC) to enable that configuration.
• Operating restrictions: Banning or limiting operations, this is the most difficult part of the balanced approach to implement as it has to align and operate within other Governmental restrictions.

How London Stansted Airport manages noise

Knowing where aircraft fly and how well they are complying with airport noise mitigation rules helps everyone to improve operations and keep the noise exposure to the absolute minimum. The airport is acknowledged as a noisy place, but steps can be taken to abate that noise as much as possible. Our noise strategy can be viewed here.

• Night Quota Management: A quota count limit and movement limit applies to the core night period 23:30-06:00. The restrictions are divided into summer and winter seasons.
• Reducing noise at source: Encouraging airlines to operate modern, low noise aircraft.
  • We currently operate a noisy aircraft penalty scheme which penalises aircraft which exceed published noise limits at night (between 23:00 and 07:00). Money raised from noisy aircraft penalties is donated to the Airport Community Fund.
• Land-use planning and management: Regularly produce noise contours for use by Government Authorities to manage the planning process. These contours show the typical noise exposure for an average day over the year.
  • Our commitment for serving up to 35 million passengers exists as a 57dB LAeq 16h daytime contour limit of 33.9km2. Once passenger numbers exceed 35mppa, a 54dB LAeq 16h daytime contour limit of 57.4km2 and a 48dB LAeq 8h night contour of 74.0km2 then becomes the contour limits. By the end of 2032, or the first year that passenger throughput reaches 43mppa, a 54dB LAeq 16h daytime contour limit of 51.9km2 and a 48dB LAeq 8h night contour of 73.6km2 then becomes the contour limits.
• Noise abatement operating procedures: Encourage aircraft operators to fly their aircraft in the optimal low-noise configuration and where appropriate monitoring compliance against these procedures with data reported as part of our regular reports.
  • Continue to promote and report figures for: Continuous descent approaches (CDA) enable aircraft to perform a gradual descent as opposed to a stepped one. This keeps aircraft higher for longer, reducing the noise experienced on the ground.
  • Continue to promote and report figures for: Continuous climb departures enable aircraft to keep climbing after take-off until they reach their cruise altitude. Continuous climbs can increase the height of the aircraft closer to the airport and make noise levels less audible.
  • Continue to promote and report figures for: A noise preferential route (NPR) is one that directs an aircraft along an agreed route to avoid areas of population. At London Stansted, we have a target of 99% of departing aircraft remaining with in the NPRs.
• Operating restrictions: Where appropriate, the airport tracks compliance against the restrictions, which include night flight restrictions with compliance reported as part of our regular reports.
  • London Stansted Airport prohibits airlines from scheduling and operating the noisiest aircraft types at night 23:00 – 07:00. These are classified as having a Quota Count (QC) of 8 or 16. QC 4 aircraft are prohibited from operating during the core night period 23:30-06:00.

The Airport’s Noise Monitoring and Management System (ANOMS) is configured to analyse compliance with all of these procedures, providing data and analytics to airport staff. This data can be extremely useful to determine trends, identify non-compliant performance, and could inform future planning such as to engage directly with the airline to improve overall performance.

An example of a Continuous Descent Arrival:

At London Stansted Airport, we have a target that 94% of aircraft arriving on Runway 22 will perform a CDA. The complexity of London airspace means that it is often not possible for aircraft arriving on Runway 04 to perform a CDA. Airspace constraints require air traffic controllers to lower aircraft approaching Stansted Airport earlier than necessary to separate them from aircraft arriving at or departing from other London airports. However, we work with air traffic controllers to meet an informal target that, during the core night period (23:30 to 06:00) when London airspace is less congested, 65% of aircraft arriving on Runway 04 will perform a CDA.

How we engage

We are proud of the role London Stansted Airport plays as a catalyst for the national and regional economy, helping drive tourism and cargo as well as and supporting jobs and business opportunities.

Working with our neighbours, local communities, colleagues, customers and on-site businesses is an important part of our approach to noise management.
We have a long-term commitment to make a positive difference to the quality of life in our local community. As part this commitment, we are dedicated to building and sustaining a positive dialogue with our neighbours: informing, involving, consulting and reporting back to them.
These groups include:

• Stansted Airport Consultative Committee (STACC). You can find more info on their website here.
  
• Noise and Track Keeping Working Group (NTKWG). This group includes a balanced membership that takes expert input from key stakeholders within the aviation industry and from those who represent the interest of local communities.
  
• Stansted Airport Youth Forum.
  

You can find more information about “Who does what?” at the airport here.

We regularly arrange and attend community outreach sessions where members of the public can come and talk to us about any issues or concerns they may have. These face-to-face outreach sessions take place each year in villages near to the airport. The events we will be attending are promoted on our website here as well as social media channels. Our attendance at events is also shared by stakeholders in the community.

The Stansted Community Flyer is our quarterly e-newsletter, updating you on the initiatives we are committed to within our CSR Strategy – Creating a Sustainable future for all.

You can find our latest Community Flyer issues here under ‘current news’ and you can sign up to receive our quarterly Community Flyer directly to your email address here.

Additional community engagement is undertaken through:

• Community survey
  
• Website material, including the WebTrak Flight tracking system

A key part of our engagement program is this portal, which seeks to share information on our past and current operations transparently with the public. It is designed to be tailored to your local area to present detailed, localised information, as well as outline programs that engage and collaborate with the public on wider topics in their area.

How can you get involved?

You can get involved in a number of ways:

• Noise enquiries and complaints, If you were disturbed by a specific flight you can investigate this using the tools on this portal and by using our online flight tracking tool. You can also use this tool to submit an enquiry or complaint to us, we’ll investigate your complaint and respond in due course. Navigate to the ‘Contacting the Airport about noise’ page under the ‘Additional Information and FAQs’ heading for more information.
• Frequently Asked questions, we assembled our most common questions into a list available on this portal.

Environmental management and reporting is essential for sustainable airport operations. This allows the airport to understand it’s impact on the local environment and community and what can be done to manage and mitigate those potential impacts.

The system London Stansted Airport uses is called ANOMS, which stands for Airport Noise and Operations Monitoring System. It is a complex solution featuring both hardware in the form of remote sensors, radar data collectors as well as advanced analytical tools.

ANOMS uses a number of fixed or temporary noise monitors in the local area, these are generally located under or near flight paths. The monitors detect and record the noise levels 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to a central system.

You can find out more by watching this video:

Data collection and noise event detection

The system combines data from remote noise monitors deployed in the local community and in proximity to runways and flight paths. These run 24 hours a day 7 days a week, continuously collecting and sending noise data through to ANOMS, creating ‘noise events’ when the noise level rises above the background noise level and meets pre-set thresholds.

Flights are tracked using data direct from Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar systems, in effect it is the same data used by ATC to safety control aircraft in the sky. ANOMS uses this data to record the path flown by the aircraft and by identifying which noise monitors the aircraft flew close to and when. ANOMS then identifies which aircraft generated each of the noise events.

The process is complex and whilst it can identify noise events due to aircraft it can also identify events that were not generated by aircraft. These are known as community events and could be generated by birds, wind, vehicles on a road or even emergency vehicle sirens. In effect, any noise that we could hear on a day-to-day basis that isn’t generated by an aircraft.

By considering the aircraft and community noise, a detailed picture of the local soundscape can be built, allowing the airport to understand the potential impact of operations in the local community.

How the system is used

The ANOMS system is used by different stakeholders in the airport management structure:

• Our Flight Evaluation Unit team can view enquiries, complaints and submissions from the local community. Accessing the detailed data available within ANOMS to respond to the local community. This includes detailed weather and operational data to explore and analyse unusual operations.
• Operations teams can use the detailed reports to assess and continuously improve the airport
• Management can assess trends, determine performance and provide direction

In summary, the system allows us to quickly identify and analyse anything anomalous, and also monitor the day to day operations of the airport, presenting reports to management and the community. The historical data can then be used to plan for the future and improve operations, where possible.