Vienna detour unfair

Groß Enzersdorf pushes back against night flight noise

When the old roof tiles vibrate: Especially at night, people feel particularly disturbed - and disadvantaged - in communities in the approach corridors in Lower Austria.(Bild: AFP)

While there is peace in the air in Vienna due to the ban on night flights, aircraft noise only annoys blue and yellow communities, and the trend is rising. Groß-Enzersdorf has finally had enough and has unanimously passed a resolution in the local council: The "Zurich model" is to be enforced.

A whopping 4700 flights are allowed to take off from Vienna Airport between 11.30 p.m. and 5.30 a.m. every year - depriving only Lower Austrians of sleep. Due to the ban on night flights over Vienna, the region around Schwechat receives a disproportionate amount of noise.

The Viennese have peace and quiet at night, the surrounding area the jets above their roofs
The reason: flights are no longer allowed to fly over the federal capital from 9 pm until 7 am. This is why only around three percent of people in Vienna who are bothered by noise say that they suffer from aircraft noise.

Numerous initiatives with different focuses
In the meantime, numerous initiatives have formed around the city to deal with this problem, with a focus on night flights. There is no parochial thinking: after all, flights have to be flown somewhere. This is why the demands are sometimes weighted differently in different areas, depending on the approach altitude and frequency.

People have been suffering from aircraft noise for a long time, but it is particularly bad at night. Now we have set an example.

Monika Obereigner Sivec, Stadtchefin aus Groß-Enzersdorf

These range from "We need to tighten the organizational screws until there is a continuous night's rest" to demands for financial support for noise protection measures - such as special windows that shield aircraft noise particularly well.

Night flights - stop, but in a more moderate form: On this issue, all parties plus the local council are on the same (flight) line and signed a resolution.(Bild: Stadtgemeinde Groß-Enzersdorf)

Now a noise-annoyed town has given the opponents a boost
The municipality of Groß-Enzersdorf, which lies above the Danube at the level of Schwechat, has now adopted a resolution based on the "Zurich model". There, the problem of noise is tackled by introducing a night-time quiet period from 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., but backlogs of delayed flights can still be cleared. 

Info at: www.aviationreset.at