The Impact of Airport Activities on Noise
Table of Contents

1 Introduction ................................................................................................... 4

2 Noise impact .................................................................................................. 5

3 Reduction Measures ...................................................................................... 7

4 Consequences of taking no action ................................................................ 10

5 Conclusion and Recommendations ............................................................... 11

6 References ................................................................................................... 12

1. Introduction Air transport is an important element of the economy and fulfils many economic and social functions in society. While it has several advantages, in terms of savings to the travel time and quality, it also has several drawbacks. The most important among them is the impact of the industry on environment. The fact that air transport industry has undergone a great change and gained large popularity means that its impact on the environment has increased accordingly. That poses several problems for the companies active in the sector. The government and its various agencies regulate the actions of air transport firms in order to minimize their impact on the environment and lives of people affected by their actions. In order to operate successfully air transport companies have to adjust their procedures to changing legal environment. The changes to air transport policies and the way in which they conduct their business are a result not only of the necessity to comply with the legal regulations but also other considerations. The most important among them are public relations and the impact of companies policies on the sympathies of the customers. For those reasons air transport companies have to pay attention to the problems of pollution and inconveniences caused by air transport. One of the most significant problems that air transport companies face is the problem of noise associated with the air transport. The matter of noise generated by planes is so important because of the significant number of the people that are affected by it. The airports tend to be located near large cities. It is difficult, due to the nature of the business, to solve the problem by simply removing the airports away from large population centres, since they have to serve them. Thus it is necessary to use different means to deal with the problem. In order to achieve such goals air transport companies have to cooperate with many organizations involved in the matter. They include governmental agencies, local communities, airlines and aircraft producers. It is impossible to solve the problem of noise completely, therefore there is a need for join action of all involved players. Agarwal (2009, p.67) notes that in the United states of America over 16 million people are affected by the aircraft noise. That gives us an important information about the scale of the problem in the industrialized countries. The number of such people in Europe is 10 million (Kiss and Shelton 2007, p.235).

2. Noise Impact The problem of noise pollution is an grave one. Noise affects human beings on several levels and in different ways. Agarwal (2009, p.51) notes in his work that noise affects humans on three distinct levels. First level are the auditory effects, where noise interferes with the hearing of human beings. On the second level are the non auditory effects, which include impact of the noise on the social behaviour of humans. The third level includes the physiological effects of noise, the impact of noise on the biological functions of a human being. The auditory effects include auditory fatigue and deafness. The non auditory effects include: communication interference, sleep interference, enjoyment, mental concentration and