Airport noise charges and local communities: evaluation and implications on commercial flights

There have always been arguments between airports and local communities because of the aeronautical noise. In fact, this is a factor that, if not properly managed, can severely cut down the development of air traffic in an airport with direct repercussions on the economic and territorial system. Nevertheless, particularly in the last decade, the critical issues relating to the impact of aeronautical noise on airport operations have greatly reduced thanks to the technological improvements in the design of aircrafts. However, the reduction of the noise emission during a single event does not make the issue of the airports’ location less important. This is the case of regional airports that have recently experimented a large traffic increase due to the development of low-cost traffic. It is now clear that the problem can not be reduced to its mere technological aspects, but it ought to be dealt with the involvement of the various entities in order to mitigate the impacts and adequately compensate the damages to local communities. Typically, there are two possible countermeasures to mitigate the effects of aircraft noise: operational measures, based on the application of technological and organizational devices and market-based measures. For example, the application of noise taxes or noise charges aiming at compensating the negative externalities generated by airport operations is becoming increasingly widespread. This paper discusses a methodology for the application of noise taxes based on the actual noise of aircraft operating into an airport.