Test flights on new route over Tokyo lead to noise complaints

Low-altitude test flights over central Tokyo started on Feb. 2 for passenger planes landing at Haneda Airport, drawing noise complaints and raising safety concerns among residents living under the new route.The test flights, aimed at checking flight control procedures and measuring the effects of noise, will be conducted on about seven days and conclude by March 11.The flights on the afternoon of Feb. 2 followed an inbound route that is expected to open on March 29.New Haneda flight routes were devised as part of the Japanese government’s goal to increase the number of foreign visitors to Japan to 40 million this year.The new routes will increase the number of landings and takeoffs at Haneda Airport from 80 to 90 times per hour.With other operational improvements, the annual number of landings and takeoffs of international flights (excluding early morning and midnight flights) will jump from the current 60,000 to up to 99,000.The Feb. 2 test flights were conducted for one hour and 40 minutes from around 4:20 p.m. and took the passenger planes about 1,000 meters above the Shinjuku Station area, about 700 meters over Ebisu Station and just 300 meters above Oimachi Station before landing at the airport.The noise from the aircraft around the Oimachi Station area of Shinagawa Ward is estimated at 76 to 80 decibels, or the same level of a vacuum cleaner.Many pedestrians in the area noticed a loud and low noise as one of the airplanes approached. They stopped walking and looked up at the sky.A woman in her 60s who lives in an apartment near Oimachi Station said she heard the roar while she was indoors and with the windows closed.“When I went outside, I had a feeling of oppression,” she said. “Even in the spring and fall when the weather is good, I will not be able to open the windows because of the noise. I am worried that my lifestyle will change.”The transport ministry will conduct the test flights on the new landing route for up to three hours betw