Welcome to the sound demonstration for the London City Airport Airspace Change Proposal consultation.
This demonstration is designed to help you understand how aircraft could sound at particular altitudes under the airport’s proposed changes.
The proposal includes introducing an additional, slightly shallower final approach path for a minority of arriving aircraft. This would enable and encourage a quicker transition to new-generation, more efficient aircraft with greater passenger capacity, such as the Airbus A320neo.
This proposal does not change where aircraft fly over the ground. Arrival and departure routes would remain exactly the same. The only change would be a small change in height for some arriving aircraft during the final stages of approach.
Throughout this sound demonstration, you will be able to listen to different aircraft types flying at different altitudes. This is intended to help you compare how aircraft can sound, and to support your understanding of the consultation material.
We have also prepared a sound demonstration located at the Horniman Gardens in South London which features aircraft operating at level flight at 2000ft.
Sound Calibration
You will now be taken through the steps to prepare your environment for the best listening experience.
Please watch the video before moving on to the next step.
If you are at an in-person consultation event, the listening environment has already been prepared for you. Please move on to the next page.
Choose Background Sound Environment
Our sound demonstrations are created from a combination of background sound environments and aircraft noise.
Please watch the video and choose the background sound environment that is most relevant to you.
Background sound environment: None
Choose Sound Demo
Now that you have chosen your background sound environment, you can use the map to select your runway direction and aircraft altitude/operation to overlay with your background sound environment to hear how the different aircraft could sound in that context.
Aircraft normally take off and land into the wind, so the runway direction in use depends on the weather on the day. This affects whether you would experience arrival or departure operations over your chosen location. In the UK, the prevailing wind is from the southwest. As a result, the westerly runway is used around 68% of the time, and the easterly runway around 32% of the time, on average.
Please select runway direction that you would like to listen to
Altitude/operation: None
Selected context
Background sound environment: None
Runway direction: None
Sound Demo
You can now listen to a sound demonstration showing different aircraft types for your chosen location and altitude.
The aircraft you will hear represent those commonly using London City Airport today, as well as aircraft that are expected to operate in the future. The three aircraft types are:
Embraer E190 One of the main aircraft currently flying at London City Airport
Embraer E190-E2 The newer and more efficient version of the E190
Airbus A320neo A larger, modern aircraft that could operate at London City Airport if the proposed additional, shallower final approach procedure is introduced.
Background sound environment: None
Altitude/operation: None
Horniman Demo
This demonstration captures aircraft operating at level flight at 2000ft above the Horniman Gardens area in South London.
Use this as an additional listening reference point alongside the runway direction and altitude/operation demonstrations.
If you are comparing experiences, you can return to the main journey and replay any background sound and altitude/operation combination.