MANAGING AIRCRAFT NOISE: THE BENEFITS OF NEW GENERATION AIRCRAFT

Sydney Airport's Preliminary Draft Master Plan (PDMP) is based on:

• no change to the existing curfew,
• no change to the existing aircraft movement cap, and
• no change to aircraft flight paths.

Technology improvements mean that today's aircraft – such as the A380  – are significantly quieter than their predecessors. The International Civil Aviation Organization has said that aircraft coming off the production line today are about 75% quieter than they were 40 years ago and that aircraft manufacturers are working to reduce this even more. The new technologies being used across all sectors of the aviation industry are reducing noise impacts in communities around airports.

Airservices Australia has released a report showing that the A380 is between 2.3 and 6.7 decibels quieter than the B747-400 when departing Sydney Airport. The report states that "a three decibel reduction is regarded as a halving of an aircraft's noise energy." The full report can be downloaded here.

The trend to quieter aircraft will accelerate in the coming years, as more of the airlines using Sydney Airport introduce A380s and the soon-to-arrive B787 into their aircraft fleets.

The PDMP contains a chart showing the Australian Noise Exposure Forecast (ANEF) for 2029. The ANEF system models aircraft noise impacts around an airport and is intended to inform planning decisions in noise sensitive areas. Comparing the 2029 ANEF with the approved ANEF in the existing Master Plan 03/04, it can be seen (below, or wherever the image is placed on the screen] that the forecast noise footprint for Sydney Airport in 2029 relative to that for 2024 has been generally reduced.

This is because of the impact of aircraft which are now quieter, a trend that will accelerate over the next 20 years with the introduction of new generation aircraft including the A380 and B787. These even quieter aircraft have not been included in the modelling for the draft ANEF.

To download further information, click on the link below.

Fact Sheet No. 6: Managing noise: the benefits of new generation aircraft (PDF 386KB)