| Night
Noise Policy Summer 2007 to Winter 2011
This document sets out Manchester Airport's policies for controlling
Night Noise. We have adopted a balanced approach in setting our
Night Noise policies and believe that they are necessary if we
are to achieve our environmental objectives and specific night
noise abatement objectives.
Our environmental objectives are to:
- Ensure that aircraft noise at night does not exceed the levels
recorded during 2001/2 (the year Runway 2 opened).
- To encourage the use of quieter aircraft
- To meet noise abatement objectives as adopted from time to time.
Our policies fall into six categories:
- Movement and points budget limits
- Noisy aircraft
- Noise penalties
- Engine testing
- Operational restrictions
- Monitoring and review
The policies will run from the beginning of the Summer season
2007 until the end of the Winter season 2011.
Movement & Points Budget Limits
Policies NN1-NN3 cover the period 23:30- 05:59.
NN1 Night movement limits will not exceed 7%
of the Airport's total movements.
This policy ensures that the number of night movements is capped
at no more than 7% of total movements of the airport. This obligation
is part of a legal agreement with Cheshire County Council.
NN2 The points budget for each Summer/Winter
season up to Summer 2012 will be fixed at 8,750 points for Summer
and 3,900 points for Winter. Points that are unused in any season
shall not be carried forward to subsequent seasons.
Every aircraft arriving and departing at night from the Airport
is given a noise classification, by the Civil Aviation Authority,
known as a Quota Count (often referred to as QC) based on ICAO
noise certification data. A modern quiet jet such as the Airbus
A319 or Boeing 737-700 is classified as QC 0.5 on arrival and
departure whilst older more noisy aircraft such as the Boeing
747 - 200 may be classified as QC8 on departure and QC4 on arrival.
For every arrival and departure we deduct the Quota Count for
the arrival or departure from the points budget. This process
allows airlines to operate more quiet aircraft in exchange for
fewer noisier ones.
Certification noise levels (EPNLs)
are used for determining the QC category.
Takeoff = (Takeoff+Sideline)/2 for Chapter 3 or
((Takeoff+Sideline)/2)+1.75 for Chapter 2
Approach = Approach - 9 |
|
Certificated
Noise Level (EPNdB) |
Quota Count |
| Greater than 101.9 |
16 |
| 99-101.9 |
8 |
| 96-98.9 |
4 |
| 93-95.9 |
2 |
| 90-92.9 |
1 |
| 87-89.9 |
0.5 |
84-86.9 |
.25 |
NN3 Seasonal movement limits of 10150 (Summer)
and 3895 (Winter) will be maintained until Summer 2011.
Whilst the overall noise climate is fixed, along with the movement
cap and the points budget, the Airport also imposes further controls
on seasonal operations.
This provides a further limit on the number of movements -even
by the quietest aircraft. It therefore complements and reinforces
policies NN1 and NN2. Again, this obligation is contained within
our legal agreement with Cheshire County Council. The seasonal
movement limits remain unchanged from our previous Night Noise
Policy.
Noisy Aircraft
NN4 Between 23:00 and 06:59 no QC16 or QC8 aircraft
will be allowed to arrive or depart.
NN5 Between 23:30 and 05:59 no QC4 aircraft will
be scheduled to depart.
NN4 and NN5 represent a significant strengthening over our previous
noise policies. For the first time rather than imposing a restriction
on the scheduling of the operation of noisier aircraft, we have
introduced an operating ban on those aircraft with quota counts
of QC8 or QC16.
We have also introduced a scheduling ban on the departure of
QC4 aircraft during the core nighttime period of 23:30-05:59.
We did consider introducing a scheduling restriction on arriving
aircraft with a quota count of QC4. However this would have affected
aircraft arriving from the USA and the Far East. Significant variability
in flight times due to weather conditions (particularly winds
in the upper airways) can lead them to arrive substantially earlier
than they are scheduled to, and normally do, arrive. The ultimate
effect of an operating restriction would have been that an aircraft
arriving early would have had to delay its landing until after
06:00 by being kept in the air in holding patterns. This would
consequently affect the amount of fuel burn, which is inconsistent
with our overall Environmental Policy.
We operate a number of exemptions, which allow QCB and QC16 aircraft
to operate within the night period and QC4 aircraft departures
to be scheduled, namely:
-Off scheduled movements during emergency situations;
- Off scheduled movements as a result of major disruption to air
traffic;
- Off scheduled movements where significant distress may be caused
to humans and animals;
- Relief flights where urgent needs exist;
- Military and support aircraft at time of war;
- Aircraft of British or foreign Royal
- Families and aircraft carrying Heads of State.
We will report any departure or arrival that takes place as a
result of these exemptions to the Manchester Airport Consultative
Committee.
Noise Penalties
NN6 Financial penalties will be applied to departing
aircraft that exceed 83 dBA monitored at 6.5 km from start of
roll. A minimum penalty of £750 for the first decibel by
which the noise level is exceeded will be applied. A further £150
will be added for each decibel in excess of the noise limit.
This policy significantly tightens the night noise limit from
85 dBA to 83 dBA and also increases the minimum penalty, which
we can impose from £500 to £750.
The purpose of imposing noise penalties is to encourage pilots
to fly their aircraft in the quietest possible manner and to encourage
airlines to change to quieter aircraft.
All penalties that are received are donated to Manchester Airport
Community Trust Fund.
Engine Testing
NN7 No engine tests will be permitted outside
the engine test bay between 22:00 and 06:00.
NNB No engine tests will be permitted outside
the engine test bay between 06:00 and 07:30 on a Saturday and
Sunday.
NN9 No more than 20 engine tests a year will
be permitted in the engine test bay between the hours of 22:00
and 06:00.
Aircraft maintenance is an important part of the activities at
the Airport and the source of many jobs. A necessary part of maintenance
is the need to test engines prior to an aircraft being brought
back into service. In order to limit the impact on local residents
a specially designed engine test bay has been constructed.
Engine testting on the airfield only takes place as an exception,
when prevailing wind direction prevents the use of engine test
bay. No such tests are allowed at night and only 20 night tests
a year are allowed within the test bay. This is a legal commitment
contained within the agreement with Cheshire County Council.
The period during which the 20 night tests can be undertaken has
been restricted by a further hour to commence at 22:00 rather
than 23:00.
Operational Restrictions
NN10 Visual approaches will not be permitted
between 23:00 and 06:59.
NN11 Non standard departures will not normally
be issued between 23:00 and 06:59.
NN12 Early turns will not be issued between 23:00
and 06:59.
NN13 All aircraft approaching Manchester between
22:00 and 05:59 will be expected to conform to a Continuous Descent
Approach.
NN14 Runway 2 will not be used between 22:00
and 05:59 unless it is unsafe to use Runway 1 or if Runway 1 is
closed for repairs.
NN15 Where available and practical for operational
reasons aircraft should use Fixed Electrical Ground Power.
NN16 Pilots are requested to avoid the use of
reverse thrust above idle power) after landing, consistent with
the safe operation of the aircraft, especially between 23:00 and
06:59.
Operational measures are an important way of encouraging quiet
operations and best practice. We have introduced a number of new
operating measures and strengthened the existing policies.
We have introduced continuous descent approaches, restricted
the use of early turns and extended the period during which non-
standard departures and visual approaches are restricted.
Monitoring and Review
NN17 We will report annually the average noise
level of the top 100 noisiest departures between 23:00 and 06:59.
NN18 We will report annually the area of the
60LAeq, 57 LAeq and 48 LAeq 8 hour contours.
NN19 We will manage the operations of the Airport
at night to ensure that neither the average noise level of the
top 1 00 noisiest departures or the area of the 60LAeq contour
is worse than recorded during 2001.
These are the performance indicators, which we use to track our
progress against our environmental objectives.
We monitor the noise levels of all aircraft operating at the Airport.
Monitoring is a requirement of both the Runway 2 Planning Conditions
and our legal agreement with Cheshire County Council. The monitoring
of performance against targets is externally audited on an annual
basis with the results of the audit being reported to the Manchester
Airport Consultative Committee. Members of the Environmental Health
Officers consultative group also have access to night noise information
for audit and performance monitoring purposes.
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