How many airports have noise and emissions-based fees and charges for aircraft?

From our previous articles we identified 298 airports with noise charges and 66 with emissions charges. Let’s have a look at how this breaks down into airports that are using both in their charging structures.

Using our AirportCharges product, we have identified 52 airports globally with noise and emission fees and charges in place, as can be seen from the Map 1 below, apart from 1 airport, these are located in Europe.

Map 1: Airports Charging Aircraft based on Noise and Emissions

Chart 1, shows that these airports are found in 12 countries and that Germany is top of the list with 17 airports, followed by Sweden and Switzerland with 10 and 7 airports respectively.

Chart 1: Airports with Noise and Emission Charges for Aircraft by Country

So, what is the most common approach used by airports? We have grouped the 52 airports into 3 groups as follows:

• Group 1 – airports who charge on noise and NOx examples include Amsterdam - Schiphol and Dortmund
• Group 2 – airports who charge on noise and CO2 examples include Edinburgh and Toulon-Hyeres
• Group 3 – airports who charge on noise, NOx and CO2 examples include London Heathrow and Stockholm Arlanda

As can be seen in Chart 2, of the 52 airports, 43 (82.7%) charge on noise and NOx, 5 (9.6%) charge on noise and CO2 and 4 (7.7%) charge on noise, NOx and CO2

Chart 2: Airports with Noise and Emission Charges by Type

So, what size of airports charge aircraft on both noise and emissions? To answer this question, we have cross referenced the airports we have identified with airline seat capacity data using our Apex product. This information is displayed in Chart 3.

Chart 3: Airports with Noise and Emission Charges by Number of Scheduled Seats

Airports charging aircraft on both noise and emissions are found at small and large airports. In our size classification the most common airports to find noise end emissions charges at have between 100k and 1 million scheduled airline seats, followed by those with 10 to 30 million seats.

Just 2 size categories didn’t have any airports charging on both noise and emissions and these were airports with less than 1k and those with 1k to 10k scheduled seats. Whilst there aren’t lots of airports charging aircraft based on both noise and emissions, what is interesting is the range of different size of airports they can be found at.

If you haven’t seen our previous articles you might be interested to read How Many Airports Have Noise-Based Charges for Aircraft? and How Many Airports Have Emissions-Based Charges in 2025?

This article was prepared using AirportCharges which enables airlines, airports and researchers to calculate, scenario plan and benchmark fees and charges at over 3,000 airports globally. If you like to find out more please contact us.