Living near an airport: how to read airport noise contours

Distance to the airport is the wrong number. Runway direction is the right one.

People house-hunting near an airport usually check one thing: how far away is it? That number misleads. Aircraft noise does not spread in circles around an airport — it follows the runways. A home 3 km past the end of a runway can be far louder than a home 1.5 km to the side of it. The Widgita noise map draws airport noise as runway-aligned lobes for exactly this reason: teardrop shapes off each runway end, joined by a corridor along the runway itself, which is roughly the shape real ICAO/FAA contours take. Airports without runway data fall back to rings.

How to check a home near an airport

1. Find the runway ends, not the terminal. On the map, follow the lobes outward from each runway. If your home sits inside a lobe, aircraft pass low over it on approach and departure.
2. Check all runways. Large airports have several, used in different directions depending on wind. A home quiet under one wind direction can be loud under another.
3. Look at the aviation score, not just the color. Click the home and read the aviation breakdown separately from road and rail — a total of 6 driven by aviation is a different life from a 6 driven by a road.
4. Check flight schedules and night traffic. The map shows where noise falls, not when. Look up the airport's busiest hours and whether night flights operate — night noise is what ruins sleep, and it is weighted most heavily in official Lden figures.
5. Visit during a busy arrival bank. Airport noise comes in waves. A quiet Tuesday morning tells you nothing about a Friday evening.

What the contours are — and are not

The lobes are rule-of-thumb approximations built from runway centerlines (OpenStreetMap) and airport positions (OpenFlights) for around 200 of the world's busiest airports. They are not the airport's official noise contours, which account for fleet mix, procedures, and terrain. Treat them as a screening tool: if a home is deep inside a lobe, expect aircraft noise; if it is well outside all lobes, aviation is unlikely to be your problem. For a binding answer — for example, for a purchase decision or a complaint — get the airport's official contour maps and, ideally, a measurement.

Questions to ask before buying near an airport

• Which runways are used most, and in which directions?
• Are there night flights, and are they growing?
• Are new runways, terminals, or flight paths planned?
• Does the home have sound insulation, and do the windows actually seal?
• What do the neighbors say about summer evenings with windows open?