What pandemic era travel restrictions revealed about aircraft noise, complaints and annoyance—SONICC 2020

Abstract

At the start of COVID-19 travel restrictions, Toronto Pearson International Airport experienced an approximate 80% reduction in traffic. This gave an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the impacts that a drastic reduction in aircraft noise would have on the communities surrounding the airport. Using the results of the Survey of Noise Impacts on Canadian Communities (SONICC) distributed in the summer of 2020, this research evaluated pre-pandemic and amidst pandemic aircraft noise annoyance in neighbourhoods surrounding Pearson Airport. The research investigated the effects of air traffic reduction on noise levels, complaint behaviour and annoyance. Complaint volumes correlated closely to the number of operations, experiencing a significant reduction. Despite the notable reduction in complaints, many complainants continued to vigorously complain, and some locations even experienced an increase in complaints. Pre-pandemic compared to amidst pandemic annoyance experienced reductions proportional to the average reduction in noise exposure. Despite significant reductions in noise, 33% of pre-pandemic highly annoyed (HA) respondents, remained highly annoyed, suggesting that anything short of a complete halt of operations would result in severe annoyance amongst a portion of the population.