Brussels, 29/11/2000 (Agence Europe) - In a press release, the European branch of the Airports Council International (ACI) regrets that the OACI should last week have decided that the legal conflict between the EU and the United States over aircraft equipped with hushkits could continue its path (see EUROPE of 18 November, p.9). Calling for the pursuit of dialogue, ACI Europe Director General Philippe Hamon notes that the conflict is all the more absurd in that "both sides have undertaken to propose more stringent noise standards at the world level" in the context of ongoing work within the OACI. He stresses that airport representatives would be submitting an appeal for noise standards to be reduced by at least 14 decibels around airports, at the next meeting of the OACI on the subject, in Montreal in January.
"With forecast air traffic volumes doubling over the next decade, only a progressive and credible reduction in the noise of each and every aircraft movement can make this growth sustainable. Clearly, the continued of hush-kitted, but still noisy, aircraft is incompatible with this goal", says Philippe Hanon. The representative of European airports notes that "research shows that the noise impact of hush-kitted aircraft is significantly higher than that of the most modern types of aircraft. A 12% increase in the number of hush-kitted aircraft at an airport is equal to a 50% increase in the noise contour".