Noise and Emissions

At NATS, we know that efficient air traffic control can help to reduce noise pollution and emissions.

We have tried to strike a balance between the need to improve airspace efficiency, reduce emissions from aircraft, and avoid towns and cities where the greatest number of people are likely to be affected by noise.

We will use modern navigation technology to route aircraft away from population centres where it is possible to do so and we have pioneered procedures to improve the noise performance and emissions of landing aircraft with Continuous Descent Approaches.

This allows aircraft to stay higher for longer and then descend at a continuous, smooth glide angle, reducing the engine power required and therefore creating less noise. It also burns less fuel, reducing emissions and related climate change gases.

However, designs always need to achieve a balance. Routeing aircraft away from towns means they fly further and increase their emissions; flying more direct routes may mean more noise for those on the ground.

In these proposals we have judged that additional route mileage and emissions are necessary where extra capacity is generated or where the noise from aircraft at low altitudes can be reduced.

As result, the emissions analysis for TCN indicates that some flights would increase fuel burn and exhaust emissions, while others would have less reduced emissions, with the overall result being neutral.

In addition to the information in the consultation document - which describes extremely technical detail in layman's terms to assist understanding - NATS has also produced additional noise metric information known as SEL footprints.

The SEL footprint information is not in the consultation document because it is highly technical and designed for noise specialists. The additional SEL reports for each airport are available from the downloads page.

For further details on the effects of noise and emissions please refer to the consultation document.