Regarding today's Noise Abatement Commission meeting - Schwarz: "Continue minimising noise exposure"

The flight paths have been specified, the work of the Noise Abatement Commission continues. At today's committee meeting, Prof. Dr. Rainer Schwarz, CEO of Berlin Airports, highlighted ways of further minimising aircraft noise around Berlin Brandenburg Airport. "The noise balance will, of course, be positive for Berlin and Brandenburg when inner-city take-offs and landings are banished in June with the closure of Tegel Airport. However, we must work on ways to further minimise noise exposure around Berlin Brandenburg Airport", said Schwarz. These include the following:

"We will now push ahead with and finance the study on the feasibility of the Munich Model for easterly take-offs", said Schwarz in the Noise Abatement Commission meeting. "We must also consider whether applying the Tegel rule to the new airport and only giving aircraft clearance from 7,000 feet upwards is a viable option. Another option would be to have early and delayed flights take off and land on only one runway between 11.30 p.m. and 5.30 a.m.

Schwarz also announced plans to step up the airport's noise protection programme. "15,000 completed applications have already been submitted and are thus ready for processing", said Schwarz. "12,000 local residents have already received cost reimbursement agreements and can have noise protection installed in their homes. We will send out the remaining 3,000 agreements in the weeks to come. We will also be more attentive to our neighbours' needs over the next few months and discuss any unresolved issues." Approx. 25,500 local residents in total are entitled to noise protection.

Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH will re-examine the areas eligible for protection/compensation now that the final flight paths have been specified. "This may well lead to minor changes", said Schwarz. "As announced, based on the proposals submitted by the German air traffic control authorities (Deutsche Flugsicherung) on 04/07/2011, 150 new households in Dahlewitz are entitled to receive noise protection. These households were contacted and informed personally last Thursday. We will continue to actively seek dialogue with local residents over the next few weeks, in order to advise them on having noise protection installed as quickly as possible and with a minimum of bureaucracy.

In accordance with legal requirements, Berlin Brandenburg Airport runs a close-knit network of aircraft noise measurement points around the airport. By monitoring aircraft noise, individual aircraft which are loud or deviate from the flight paths can easily be identified. CEO of Berlin Airports, Schwarz, announced in today's Noise Abatement Commission meeting: "We will voluntarily increase the number of aircraft noise measurement points before BER goes into operation on 03/06/2012. New locations will include points in Kienitzberg, Waltersdorf and in the south of Blankenfelde. The final flight paths are thus being taken into account immediately for monitoring aircraft noise." The network of measurement points will become even more closely knit after the airport opens, too. At the same time, the mobile aircraft noise measurement points of Berlin Brandenburg Airport will remain in use in the areas surrounding the airport. These enable additional comparative data to be gathered at a different location every month. Since being commissioned in August 2010, the points have measured aircraft noise in Ludwigsfelde, Werder, Erkner and Friedrichshagen, amongst others.