Effects of Noise Sensitivity, Noise Exposure, and Affluent Status on Aircraft Noise Annoyance

Subjective discomfort of airport community is often assessed as reported noise annoyance in relation to noise exposure level and noise sensitivity. In addition, it has been mentioned that higher affluent people appear to have higher contention to aircraft noise, but there is little literature explicitly supporting that. This paper investigates the relationships among aircraft noise exposure level, noise sensitivity, affluence status, aircraft noise annoyance, and annoyance by other noise sources (e.g., road traffic and neighbor noise). A structural equation model is developed and estimated using data collected from residents, aged between 18 and 77 years old, living near Manila airport in the Philippines (N = 321). Results show that noise sensitivity, noise exposure level, and affluent status have positive effects on aircraft noise annoyance, suggesting that higher affluent people are substantially more annoyed by the aircraft noise than lower affluent people. The results also indicate that the annoyance by other noise sources is significantly influenced by noise sensitivity (p < 0.01), but not by the affluent status. This implies that people with higher affluent status consider more about the noise generated from aircraft than the noise from other sources. Following an airport development plan, the aviation authorities should also consider the affluent status of nearby communities in order to formulate a better aircraft noise management near that airport.