Annoyance due to aircraft noise among residents near a small domestic airport in Nigeria

Non‐acoustical variables are employed to investigate the existence and level of aircraft noise problem in the vicinity of the Benin City domestic airport. It is often assumed that the problem of noise nuisance is important only around major international airports. The paper seeks to test the validity of this assumption and it is based on the results obtained from data collected with a questionnaire instrument which elicited annoyance responses from residents who live near the airport. The responses are found to be related to variations in socio‐economic, demographic and other non‐acoustic variables. The key variations are due to the location of employment, actual house‐rent paid or desired, adjacent road traffic conditions and the length of stay in the noise impacted area. Above all, the said assumption does not hold in the light of our findings. Environmental planning and research implications of the results are discussed. Some recommendations are made.