All the Airport Expansion Plans that have been put forward state that aircraft noise, and those affected by it, will – in future – will find the Health Blight reduced. The claim is that, as cutting-edge science in aircraft design and development is used more, lives will be made more bearable.
This technology (and the development of it), is many years away and will only be delivered if the price for that technology is right for airlines. Climate change, and its effects, are already a clear and present danger, as pointed out in studies by the University of Reading: –
https://www.reading.ac.uk/news/2025/Research-News/Airports-will-get-noisier-as-Earth-gets-warmer
This research is around Heathrow airport but let us look at how these effects would present themselves at Luton airport –
Currently, departures from Luton are height restricted, due to the complex levels of airspace that have to accommodate flights to and from Heathrow/Stansted/London City/Northolt as well as Luton. If higher temperatures mean lower rates of climb on departure, and that fragile structure will have more conflicts between flights and will therefore result in more flights being delayed on the ground. This will cause more pollution on the ground, which will of course add to climate change, and more warmer air masses.
If flights must be held at lower levels as they struggle to climb higher, the noise will stay longer above populated areas and will creep out to other dwellings along those routes. Late running flights will, of course, then cause the ongoing flight schedules to be delayed, and therefore more flights going back into the overnight periods.
Aircraft engines also do not work as optimally at higher air temperatures, and this can then cause issues with turbines needing checking and replacing sooner than scheduled. Heathrow, of course, also has runways which are 3,000 feet longer than at Luton. Increases in warmer denser air, would mean that short haul flying from Heathrow could use longer runway take off lengths, and possibly mitigate some of the longer climb outs. That option does not exist at Luton, so in theory it could mean that to save operating weights, aircraft might have to operate with fewer passengers to cut down on those weights, or airlines could insist on putting income first, and to hell with a person’s quality of home life.
For those residents of South Luton, and of Breachwood Green, which lie at both ends of the Luton runway, the thought of aircraft being lower and noisier, will make home life unbearable. Once again, science points to problems that the aviation industries would rather keep well buried under the carpet, as once again it shows that the Greenwashing hype trumpeted in all airport expansion plans, really isn’t worth the paper it is written on.