For a year now, Frankfurt Airport has been testing whether major cities such as Offenbach and Mainz can be relieved of aircraft noise through a curved approach, the so-called segmented approach.
At its most recent meeting, the Aircraft Noise Commission for Frankfurt Airport, in which the aviation industry, the city of Frankfurt itself and the municipalities affected by Frankfurt's flight operations are represented, advocated continuing this test in order to obtain more usable data.
Jochen Remert
Airport editor and correspondent Rhein-Main-Süd.
Follow I follow
However, some smaller towns and municipalities, which are now flown over when circumnavigating the big cities, strictly reject this.
The mayor of Neu-Isenburg, Herbert Hunkel (independent), and his Heusenstamm colleague Steffen Ball (CDU), justified the rejection in a statement for their cities and on behalf of the municipalities of Obertshausen, Hainburg, Rodgau and Seligenstadt.
Relief effect rather small
Based on the available data, it can be stated that the relief effect, for example in Offenbach in the period between March and September 2021 with 0.1 decibels during the day and 0.4 decibels at night, was only very small compared to the noise in the recently overflown municipalities.
For example, the exposure in Heusenstamm in the summer of 2021 increased by 1.3 decibels during the day and by 4.0 decibels at night, in Rüsselsheim-Bauschheim by 3.37 decibels during the day and by 12.7 decibels at night, according to the statement municipalities
The Aircraft Noise Commission, on the other hand, considers the data to be insufficient, the "low application rate" does not yet allow any conclusions to be drawn as to how the segmented approach will ultimately affect noise pollution and distribution when there is a higher volume of flights, the commission argued.
In addition, Commission Chairman Thomas Jühe (SPD), Mayor of Raunheim, points out that continuing the tests of the curved approach does not mean that the segmented approach is to be committed to as the regular approach procedure.
Regardless of this assurance, the municipalities that are now tending to be more affected by aircraft noise state that the segmented approach took place between July and December last year, when the number of flight movements in Frankfurt reached 60 to 80 percent of the pre-corona values again. the proportion of curved approaches was only two percent, so the opportunity was only very rarely used.
Approach for times with little traffic
However, no proponent of further tests believes that the segmented approach at Frankfurt Airport can be flown at peak times and with a volume as before Corona with around 1400 flight movements per day.
Everyone involved knows that this is only an approach procedure for times of low traffic.
And as bitter as it may sound: the corona pandemic, with its disastrous effects on air traffic, made it possible to test the maneuver at Frankfurt Airport during the day in the first place.
At Kassel-Calden Airport, for example, with its minimal number of flights, it makes practically no difference from a safety point of view whether the few aircraft are flying turns or not.
However, if the planes line up one after the other like pearls on a chain at Germany's largest airport during peak traffic times, it would be tricky if this chain also began to meander around cities to the east of the airport, such as Offenbach and Hanau, so to speak to turn onto the straight final approach line at the last moment.
Therefore, this procedure, which has been officially part of the active noise protection at Frankfurt Airport since 2011, was only used before Corona at times when there should actually be no traffic at all, namely between 11 p.m. and 5 a.m. for late landings that the night flight ban in force during these hours until midnight as an exception.
Quite apart from all the arguments mentioned for and against further testing of the segmented approach, in the end, for safety reasons, it is always up to the pilot to decide whether to turn or whether to choose the dead-straight approach line.