How to complain about aircraft noise, and what actually happens next

Most aircraft noise complaints end with a reply explaining that the plane was where it was allowed to be. That is no reason to stay quiet, but it is a reason to complain in a way that gets a specific answer, and to know what a complaint can change and what it can't.

Where to complain: the airport first

Complain to the airport the planes are flying to or from, even if you think the airline or air traffic control is to blame. The airport's noise team has the flight tracks, the noise monitors and the contacts with airlines and controllers, so it is the one that can find out what happened to a particular flight. The UK's Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) both send people to the airport first.

Most large airports take complaints online, by email or by phone. At Heathrow it is an online form, noise@heathrow.com or 0800 344844, and Heathrow aims to reply within five working days. Our Heathrow page has the details, and each of our airport pages lists that airport's channels.

Three routes that seem obvious often lead nowhere:

• The local council. In England and Wales, councils can't treat aircraft noise as a statutory nuisance: the law that lets them act against a noisy neighbour excludes aircraft, other than model aircraft.
• Military aircraft. Neither the airport nor the civil regulator can help. In the UK the CAA has no authority over military flying, so contact the Ministry of Defence's Low Flying Complaints and Enquiries Unit. In the US the FAA does not regulate military operations; contact the base's noise or community relations office.
• Helicopters and light aircraft. If they don't use a large airport, contact the operator or the airfield. In the UK, if you can read the registration (G- followed by four letters), the CAA's aircraft register gives the owner's name and address.

What to put in a complaint

A complaint the airport can match to a flight gets an answer about that flight. "The planes are unbearable" gets a standard letter. Include:

• The date and the exact time, to the minute if you can. Airports find the flight by matching the time to their flight-track records.
• Your address and postcode, or where you were if you were out. The airport needs it to see which flights passed near you.
• What you noticed: louder than usual, lower than usual, earlier than usual, off the usual route, circling, a new pattern that started on a certain date.
• The flight, if you can find it. Many airports run WebTrak, a public flight tracker that shows recent flights with their heights; Heathrow's lets you pick a flight and comment on it. Our free flight map replays whole days.
• A question. A specific question gets a specific reply: "The plane at 23:41 on 12 June took off although departures are not scheduled after 23:00. Was it a delayed flight, and was it allowed?"

Send it the same day or soon after, while you remember the details, and keep a copy.

What the airport does with it

It records it. Each complaint is logged with its date, location and subject. Heathrow publishes quarterly and annual reports: in 2025, 55% of complaints and enquiries were about planes being loud, 24% about planes being low and 9% about early morning flights.

It checks the flight against the rules. The noise team looks at the flight's track, height and time, and at readings from noise monitors, and compares them with the rules that apply: departure routes, climb requirements, night restrictions. Heathrow, for example, has a team that monitors track keeping and noise daily and looks for the root cause when flights fall short. In 2025, 95.1% of its departures kept to their set routes, 99.9% reached 1,000 ft within 6.5 km of the start of the take-off run, and 90% of arrivals flew a continuous descent.

It replies. Usually the reply explains why the plane was there: the wind had turned and the runway direction with it, the runway in use had changed, a controller had steered the plane off the usual route (at Heathrow in 2025, for instance, around storms), or a late flight was allowed under the night rules. These explanations are worth having. They tell you whether you are hearing something permanent or a spell of unusual days.

If a rule was broken, what follows depends on the rule and the country. In France, an independent authority, ACNUSA, can fine airlines for breaking route, night-time and other environmental rules at 15 airports, including both Paris airports.

What a complaint can and can't change

Be realistic. A plane that followed its route at a normal height was legal, however loud it was, and a complaint about it will not change anything by itself. The FAA says plainly that complaints it receives usually do not lead to airspace changes, and that formal action is rare because most operators keep to the rules. The CAA says it has no power to restrict an aircraft that is noisy but within the rules of the air.

What complaints do is build a record. Airports report the number of people who complain as well as the number of complaints, and the two can be very different. Heathrow received 71,550 complaints and enquiries in 2025 from 1,423 people, and 10 of those people made 86% of the noise complaints. One precise complaint from every affected household on a street shows the airport more than hundreds from one.

That record matters when the rules come up for change: in noise action plans, insulation scheme reviews, night flight decisions and airspace changes. The most effective thing most people can do is take part in those, which our guide to responding to airport consultations explains.

Taking it further in the UK

If the airport's reply doesn't settle it, the CAA takes concerns about aircraft noise and the use of UK airspace, including low flying, through an online form (FCS 1521). Our guide to how low planes can legally fly explains the height rules it enforces.

Where the complaint is about the rules themselves rather than one flight, go to whoever sets them. The CAA points out that an airport's operating hours and noise limits are often part of its planning permission, so the local council's planning department can tell you what applies. At Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted, night flight limits are set by the Department for Transport.

Taking it further in Europe

Start with the airport everywhere. What comes next depends on the country. France has ACNUSA. In Ireland, the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority regulates noise at Dublin Airport but does not handle complaints, which go to the airport operator, daa.

Across the EU, every airport with more than 50,000 flights a year must have a noise action plan, reviewed every five years, and the authorities must consult the public on it. That consultation is where a documented complaint has the most chance of changing something.

Taking it further in the US

The FAA's advice is to contact the airport operator first. After that:

• The FAA Noise Portal (ANCIR) takes complaints with the location, time and type of noise. The FAA uses them to track trends and noise hotspots.
• A Regional Ombudsman, also called a Community Engagement Officer, in each of the FAA's nine regions answers questions the airport could not.
• The FAA Aircraft Noise Ombudsman is the FAA's liaison with the public on noise. The ombudsman does not usually resolve individual complaints, but looks for patterns across them and can recommend changes to FAA policy.
• Low flying that looks unsafe goes to the local FAA Flight Standards District Office, which deals with safety rather than noise.

When one complaint is not enough

If the noise is new or getting worse, a single complaint won't show it. Keep a simple log of dates, times and what you heard, and complain about the clearest cases. Find out whether there is a residents' group or an airport noise forum near you. And check the facts for your address: how many loud planes it gets on a typical day, how many at night and how that changes with the runway in use.

If the noise is here to stay, check whether you qualify for an insulation scheme or any compensation.