Issues facing Osaka International Airport and its dialogues with the surrounding communities

Abstract

Osaka International Airport is an urban airport located close to the city center, and its operating hours are set at 14 hours, from 7:00 to 21:00. In the past, the airport had conflicts with local residents over aircraft noise. Even today, the airport needs to pay careful attention to the communities to ensure smooth operation of the noise-generating airport. The flight schedule is set to allow enough time for takeoffs and landings in order not to exceed 21:00 based on the agreements with the surrounding communities; however, recently there have been many delayed flights, takeoffs and landings outside of the operating hours, due to weather conditions or for other unavoidable reasons. We have gained a certain level of understanding of the surrounding communities for delayed flights by sharing appropriate information and holding regular dialogues with them. In addition, Osaka International Airport has set specific flight paths called noise preferential routes to minimize the impact of aircraft noise around the airport and is using a system to monitor deviations from NPRs. This presentation is to introduce the current status of these activities and methods for properly analyzing the information to provide to the community.