All predictions for international air traffic point towards steady growth. This means welcome economic growth for airports like Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle or Frankfurt.

But the increase in air traffic also presents a challenge in terms of runway capacity and increasing noise nuisance. Restrictions in aircraft movements pertain, for example, to the number of dwellings exposed to high levels of noise nuisance and the number of severely annoyed people in the airport vicinity.

Airports in Europe are confronted with the challenge of growth and environmental restrictions and aircraft noise is just one of the many aspects of environmental impact of aviation. The European project Clean Sky has the overarching purpose to developing ground breaking technologies for the sake of a more sustainable aviation sector and aviation products.  This is crucial for both the environment and the competitiveness of the European aviation industry. The ambition is to halving the amount of CO2 emissions and noise disturbances and reducing nitrogen emissions of 80 percent.