These Regulations implement into UK law the provisions of Directive 2002/30 of the European Parliament and of the Council12, on the establishment of rules and procedures with regard to the introduction of noise-related operating restrictions at UK airports.

They apply to city airports (listed in Schedule 1 to the Regulations) and to other civil airports within the United Kingdom which have more than 50,000 take-offs or landings of civil subsonic jet aeroplanes per calendar year (taking into consideration the average of the last three calendar years before the application of the Regulations to the airport in question).

The “competent authority” will be the airport operator, except where the airport is designated under section 78 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982. In such cases the competent authority will be the Secretary of State in respect of all matters provided for by notice under that section; the airport operator will be the competent authority in respect of all other matters for the purposes of the Regulations. The competent authority is required, when addressing noise problems at the airport, to publish an environmental objective for the airport. In dealing with the problems he must adopt a balanced approach which may also include economic incentives, but which shall not impose measures which are more restrictive than necessary to achieve the environmental objective, and shall not discriminate on grounds of the nationality or identity of the air carrier or manufacturer; the balanced approach may also include operating restrictions. Where operating restrictions are proposed to reduce or limit aeroplane noise, these must be based on the certification procedure under Annex 16 of the Third Edition of July 1993 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation, incorporating amendments 1 to 7 of that document.

The Regulations lay down rules of assessment applicable prior to any decision to impose operating restrictions. Where operating restrictions are found to be necessary they are to be aimed at the withdrawal of aircraft which comply with the certification standard in Chapter 3 of the Third Edition of Annex 16 of the Convention on International Civil Aviation (ICAO) by a cumulative margin of not more than 5 effective perceived noise decibels. Competent authorities at city airports may impose more stringent definitions of marginally compliant aircraft, if necessary, provided that they do not affect aircraft which comply with the noise standards in Chapter 4 of the ICAO document.

There is provision, in certain circumstances, for exemptions for aircraft registered in developing countries and also for aircraft operations of an exceptional nature.