Locals outraged after nearby airport caters to private jets in the middle of the night: 'Similar to your [neighbor] starting up a chainsaw'

Residents of Nelson, New Zealand, begged officials to do something about noisy overnight private jet activity at a recent forum, the Press reported.

Nelson Airport is New Zealand's fifth-busiest, "surrounded on three sides" by otherwise quiet suburbs.

At the meeting, locals like Lewis Solomon of the Association of Residents for the Environment at Nelson Airport (ARENA) acknowledged that they anticipated aircraft activity would generate a reasonable level of noise.

However, attendees noted that, unlike other highly-trafficked airports, Nelson Airport did not adhere to an "airport curfew." Dassault Aviation, maker of military and private jets, described curfews as measures to curtail "aircraft noise pollution."

Commercial airlines contend with airport curfews and night-flying restrictions, but Nelson isn't the first locale where private jet activity has specifically disrupted the peace. 

Flightworx, an international agency with a strong focus on facilitating private jets, warned those who don't fly commercial to expect increasing global "efforts to cut industry carbon emissions, but also to address local noise pollution," citing a 2023 proposed private jet ban in Amsterdam.

In 2023, CNN reported that Amsterdam Schiphol Airport was considering a ban on private jets due to "a disproportionate amount of noise nuisance and CO2 emissions per passenger."

A 2024 study in Nature Communications Earth & Environment identified a sharp uptick in private jet use from 2019 onward, primarily for non-emergency uses. Researchers found a 46% increase in pollution and observed that 68.7% of private jets were registered in the U.S.

In June, the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) published a "groundbreaking study," noting that harmful pollution from private jets was up 25% in the last decade. 

"A typical private jet emits as many greenhouse gases each year as 177 passenger cars or nine heavy-duty highway trucks," said ICCT Aviation Fellow Daniel Sitompul. The ICCT also determined that two-thirds of private jet takeoffs occurred in the United States.

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During the recent meeting in Nelson, residents like Solomon didn't seek a total ban; they merely sought restrictions on late-night and early-morning activity. 

He played an airport audio file of private jet noise recorded at 11:31 p.m. local time, which started up again 26 minutes later.

"In terms of volume, it would probably be similar to your neighbour starting up a chainsaw at 11:31 p.m., which I'm sure would not be your expectation," Solomon explained, before sharing another clip captured at 4:34 a.m.

Willie Sage, chief executive of Wellington Jet Charters, acknowledged that residents' complaints were understandable and operators should "try and do something about it." Nelson Airport attributed late-night noise to emergency flights.

However, Sage maintained that the international travelers using private jets "were large spenders in an array of tourist activities," according to the Press.

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