Noise Protection

Legal Bases

Reducing aircraft noise is one of the biggest challenges for the aviation industry and airports. In dialogue with each other, airport operators, airlines, and companies in the aviation industry are continually looking for new ways to minimise aircraft noise. Noise charges have been levied at BER since 1 September 2022; these depend on the volume of the individual flight. Since then, low-noise flying through quiet aircraft or flight procedures has been directly financially rewarded.

Reduction of Noise through Technological Improvements

Continual technical improvements mean that aircraft are becoming ever quieter. For example, the aircraft that take off and land at BER today are on average 23 decibels quieter than they were in the 1970s. In addition, increasingly more new and quiet aircraft can be observed at BER. You can find more information on this in the current aircraft noise report. 

Noise-based Fees 

Airlines who generate excessive noise will have to pay considerably more at BER. For many years, the basis for levying noise-related charges was the classification of the different aircraft types into noise classes. However, this had the disadvantage that only the aircraft type – but not the individually caused noise – was decisive for the charges. In September 2022, the noise-based charges were adjusted. Since then, the noise generated by each flight movement has been measured and billed accordingly. In addition, flights at night are significantly more expensive and, depending on the time of day, are subject to surcharges of up to 500%.