Aberdeen airport keeps an ear to the ground for noise monitoring
17.7.2008 (BAA)
A four-day noise monitoring operation will be carried out around Aberdeen Airport
from tomorrow, as part of the planning agreement reached with Aberdeen City Council
which allows 24 hour operations.
The sites to be monitored include Gilbert Road, Bucksburn; Greenburn Road, Bucksburn;
Cordyce View, Dyce; Union Row, Dyce; Dyce Drive, Overton and Newton Farm, Kirkhill.
In March 2005 the airport was granted permission by Aberdeen City Council for
24 hour operations, following a variation to an existing planning condition. The
variation means fixed-wing flights can take off and land at the airport at any
time.
A condition to the extension of the original planning consent, which previously
only allowed the operation of flights between 0600 and 2230, was an annual requirement
for ambient noise monitoring.
Despite a dramatic increase in passenger numbers in recent years, ambient noise
levels have remained low.
The first monitoring exercise was carried out in June 2005. The specific aim
of the exercise is to define and describe the existing noise environment at Aberdeen
Airport, during both day and night time periods.
From tomorrow noise monitoring will be carried out around the airport site, through
the hours of day and night at various locations. This work will be carried out
by Enviros Consulting Ltd. The monitoring exercise will be concluded on Sunday
July 20.
The airport’s environment manager Stuart Torpey, who will oversee the monitoring
operation, said: "We are committed to ensuring our environmental impacts are monitored
across the airport site, and through the annual noise monitoring exercise combined
with other environmental monitoring regimes allow us to identify and target areas
for improvement.
"These areas are assessed and incorporated into our annual corporate responsibility
targets, which are externally verified and reported in the annual corporate responsibility
report. Despite rising numbers of passengers travelling with Aberdeen Airport,
our ambient noise levels have remained low. These results are shared with Aberdeen
City Council’s planning and environmental health departments on an annual basis,
and are available to members of the public."
- BAA Scotland has invested more than £100 million in route development over the
past five years. As a result of this investment, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh
and Airports will this summer offer more than 140 destinations worldwide. - Aberdeen Airport picked up the ACI Airport Service Quality’s ‘Best Improvement
Award’ in February. The title goes to the airport which has experienced the biggest
improvement in overall customer satisfaction results between 2006 and 2007. The
awards are based on annual results of overall satisfaction of international passengers. - The airport has now been short-listed in the Corporate Social Responsibility
category of the National Business Awards for Scotland, with the winner to be announced
in September.