On January 13, 2021, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) released the results of its long-awaited Neighborhood Environmental Survey (NES).

This is the first step in the FAA’s multi-year research effort to quantify relationships between aircraft noise exposure and community annoyance to determine if it needs to update its 40-year-old noise policy.

Now that the NES is released, the FAA is requesting stakeholder input via a Federal Register Notice requesting comments on the NES results until April 14, 2021.

ESA’s Airports group has reviewed the NES and provided a synopsis of the FAA’s findings, its history in noise exposure and annoyance research, and an explanation of the Schultz curve. We encourage airport operators to consult with their stakeholders to identify specific areas of interest that should be considered for future research in order to guide future federal policy around noise, and submit comments to the federal docket before the April 14 deadline.

First page of ESA's fact sheet about FAA's NES

Please download this helpful flyer and contact Mike Arnold for more information.