Suvarnabhumi airport plans to reduce aircraft noise and change landing routes

Suvarnabhumi airport will place noise restrictions on all planes and plans to adjust the landing routes of aircraft to help ease noise pollution affecting local residents, officials said yesterday. Supat Wangwongwatana, deputy chief of the Pollution Control Department, said the agency had agreed with the Civil Aviation Department to ban all aircraft violating noise level limits currently set at 103 decibels by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

"The Aviation Department will make an announcement this week to inform all airlines," Mr Supat said. "Airlines will have to show us noise certificates that their aircraft meet the regulations."

The measure was a common global practice which would not pose any serious problems for the airlines, he added.

Aviation Department chief Chaisak Angkhasuwan said all planes registered in the country will be verified by the department, while other civil aviation agencies would be asked to strictly check planes in their countries.

Mr Chaisak said he was confident that the strict measures could help reduce noise levels for people living near the airport in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district.

The agreement was reached in talks between the two agencies on Monday and the Aviation Department informed the Transport Ministry about the decision yesterday. The Pollution Control and Aviation departments also plan to use the eastern runway more for landings to ease noise pollution on the western part of the airport where the majority of people live.

The new airport currently uses its western runway for 98% of landing aircraft.

Mr Chaisak said the proposed plan will decrease the use of the western runway for landing to 85%, with all remaining flights landing on the eastern runway. The eastern runway is currently used almost entirely for take-offs rather than landings.

The proposed change was based on research conducted by a committee set up to solve noise problems at the airport.

The report found that the Noise Exposure Forecast - a complex measure of peoples' exposure to aircraft noise - would be reduced from 44.5-33.1 to 41.8-30.1 for the western runway, and increased from 10.8-11.1 to 32.4-38.7 for the eastern runway if the latter could receive more landing planes.

"The method could reduce noise pollution to a certain level," Mr Supat said

The report says there are some 71 houses affected by noise from planes using Suvarnabhumi. Those suffering from noise higher than 70 decibels will receive compensation from Airports of Thailand. The government has set aside 300 million baht for payments.

But chief of Pollution Control Monthip Sriratana Tabucanon added that many houses in Onnuj district in Bangkok might also meet the criteria for compensation. However, all guidelines to cope with noise pollution should be urgently forwarded to the National Environmental Committee for approval before being implemented, she said. The Department of Pollution Control will conduct further noise level tests at the airport between November 10-16.