02 - Executive summary

Executive summary

This document outlines why we have a Noise Action Plan (NAP), sets out progress against the 2013-2018 NAP actions and outlines our proposed actions for 2018-2023.

Edinburgh Airport is one of the fastest growing airports in the UK. In 2017, we broke an annual record for passengers at any Scottish airport with confirmation of over 13.4 million people flying through the airport.

We cannot completely eliminate the noise caused but we aim to manage and reduce our impact on our neighbouring communities, wherever possible through planning, monitoring and mitigation.

The EU Noise Directive (2002/49/EU) and Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006 require airports with over 50,000 movements a year to produce a noise action plan. The Scottish Government’s Environmental Assessment (Scotland) Act 2005 requires airports to produce a Noise Action Plan every five years. As part of finalising these plans, the Scottish Government requires us to consult with communities on our draft plan.

The key themes for 2018-2023 are:

• a) continue our commitment to managing aircraft noise impacts associated with Edinburgh Airport’s operations including:
• (i) the quietest fleet practicable
• (ii) the quietest practicable aircraft operations
• (iii) effective and credible noise mitigation schemes
• b) continue to engage with the communities affected by aircraft noise and better und erstand and respond to their concerns and priorities
• (i) influence planning policy to minimise the number of noise sensitive properties around our airport
• c) effectively manage aircraft noise
• d) build on our extensive understanding of aircraft noise to further inform our priorities, strategies and targets.

The EU’s Environment Noise Directive also requires that each action plan should contain estimates in terms of the reduction in the number of people affected (annoyed, sleep disturbed or other). While this is difficult to estimate, a high-level number has been included as part of the action plan in Section 10.

We recognise that it is important to keep communities and other stakeholders informed about any progress made. We are committed to reporting publicly on our performance and the effectiveness of our actions to address community concerns. With this in mind, we report on our progress against the action plan in our annual Corporate Responsibility Report (CRR). The CRR is posted on our website at edinburghairport.com/community

We have recently set up an independent Noise Management Board (NMB) made up of community councils along with other airport stakeholders.

The airport will report all noise issues and mitigation measures into this board. We also report on noise and mitigation measures to Edinburgh Airport’s Consultative Committee (EACC) which is made up of local and community councils along with other airport stakeholders.

By prioritising noise management activities on the most effective actions, we believe we can ensure maximum benefits for noise-affected communities. To produce the contour maps that are used in this 2018-2023 NAP, we used population data that was produced for the Scottish Government by Jacobs Ltd, and supplied to Edinburgh Airport. The parameters used in the production of this data are detailed in Appendix A.