Dublin Airport noise: One person files over 23,000 complaints in 2022

One individual was responsible for almost 90 per cent of all complaints about noise from aircraft using Dublin Airport last year, filing a daily average of 64 incident reports with the airport operator, DAA.

The serial complainant, who had been reporting claims of excessive noise from aircraft taking off and landing at Dublin Airport on almost a daily basis since 2019, lodged a total of 23,431 complaints last year.

The person, who is believed to live in the northwest Dublin suburb of Ongar, made 2,616 complaints to DAA in July alone about aircraft noise, a daily average of 84.

Figures published by DAA show a total of 26,196 complaints about noise from aircraft using Dublin Airport were recorded last year – up 93 per cent (almost 13,000) on the previous year.

Although the figures are skewed by the large number of complaints from one individual, there was still an increase in the overall level of complaints by residents. This has been linked to an overall increase in aircraft movements following the easing of Covid-19 restrictions and the opening of the €320 million North Runway.

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Excluding reports from the serial complainant, the number received from other members of the public still more than doubled from 1,296 in 2021 to 2,765 last year.

There was also a threefold increase in the number of unique individuals who complained about aircraft noise to DAA – a total of 608, compared to 174 in 2021.

The figures show a spike in the number of people making complaints after the new runway opened in late August, with more than 900 cases reported by 192 individuals in September.

Most complaints came from residents of Kinsealy, Portmarnock, Swords, Dunboyne and Malahide and related to flights taking off at night. However, the exact number of complaints relating to aircraft using the North Runway is unclear as separate figures have still to be collated by DAA.

The north runway in Dublin airport, a €320 million piece of infrastructure, has brought daily unwelcome disruption for residents in north county Dublin.

The airport operator confirmed earlier this year that flights departing from the North Runway would be rerouted after residential areas were “unexpectedly overflown”.

Following a review undertaken in consultation with the Irish Aviation Authority after a large number of complaints about aircraft noise, airport management said departure flight paths would be reversed to align more closely with the original planned route. The proposed changes are due to come into effect on February 23rd.

DAA acknowledged that an issue about flight paths had been identified after the runway started use, resulting in some local communities being overflown.