Dublin Airport launches 'noise information service' for local community

The airport has been the subject of a large volume of complaints since the opening of its north runway in August 2022. File picture: Shutterstock

Dublin Airport has launched what it has described as an “innovative” new online portal which it says will help local residents to gauge how flights to and from the airport “may impact” the community.

Airport administrative body Daa said that the airport’s new noise information service will help to “enhance transparency and communication” with local residents.

Operating as a dashboard for historic flight information and aircraft noise, the new portal will make use of the "insightful" technology developed by Envirosuite, an Australian multinational.

The airport has been the subject of a large volume of complaints since the opening of its north runway in August 2022, particularly as flights taking off from it have been diverted above residential areas at variance with the straight-out flight paths included in the runway’s 2007 planning permission application.

Launching the new portal, Daa chief executive Kenny Jacobs said that the organisation knows “that airport operations impact the community around us and we take that seriously”.

“We have to strike a balance between operating a major international airport and ensuring Ireland has the connectivity it needs with the needs of those living close to the airport,” he said, while acknowledging that doing so is “always going to be difficult”.

The Daa launch comes on the same day that the St Margarets, The Ward Residents group launched an independently commissioned report asserting that aircraft noise at the airport has inflicted a human “health cost” of more than €770m and estimating that close to 17,000 people living in the area may have experienced cardiovascular issues as a result of the noise impact.

Earlier this week transport minister Darragh O’Brien said the Government remains “committed” to removing the Dublin Airport passenger cap of 32 million people, but stressed he does not yet know how it will be achieved.