Airports
Small airfields form front lines of noise wars
The story that tells the economic fortunes of smaller metropolitan airfields in Europe is very much a tale of several cities.

The story that tells the economic fortunes of smaller metropolitan airfields in Europe is very much a tale of several cities. Many find themselves in a veritable “Catch-22”–they can expand their operations as long as arriving and departing aircraft meet local neighborhood rules. But increased services aggravate negative public perception of the noise they generate.

City Centre Airports Association secretary-general Bjorn Rotsman told AIN that “environmental issues, both noise and emissions,” have ranked as the association’s top concerns for many years and have escalated as the industry prospers, even though aircraft have become less noisy.