Fewer flights and lower community noise: Noise monitoring at six airports in the United States before, during, and after the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in reduced air travel in the United States (US). In the ensuing years after the pandemic, air travel rebounded to near pre-pandemic levels. This provided an opportunity to assess the impact of fewer flights on community noise using monitoring data from six major airports in the US. Flight data for the airports were obtained from the US Department of Transportation (DOT) for the 5-year period before, during, and after the pandemic (2018-2022). Noise levels were assessed at monitoring sites surrounding airports (SFO, LAX, ORD, JFK, LGA, and EWR) in San Francisco, CA; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, IL; New York City, NY; and Newark, NJ for the same period. Linear models and generalized additive models (GAMs) were used to investigate the changes in Lden and Ldn noise metrics by year and by flight operations. Percentage reduction in flights ranged from 43.9 - 56.2% less in the year of the pandemic (2020) compared to pre-pandemic peak levels. Average noise levels were also found to range from 3.0 - 5.4 dBA lower in 2020 compared to the peak levels before the pandemic. Both flight traffic and noise levels have increased since 2020. Linear regressions and GAMs both indicated lower noise levels at each airport during the pandemic, and associations between numbers of flights and noise levels. Based on linear models, the point estimate effect of air traffic on annual noise level was a 0.8 to 2.7 dBA change per 100,000 annual flights. These findings extend those of previous studies that have also documented noise reductions during the pandemic. This is one of the few studies that evaluated noise reductions in US airport communities in relationship to reduced air traffic across multiple years.