The Boston Logan Airport Noise Study (BLANS) is the result of a mitigation requirement contained in the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) 2002 environmental Record of Decision (ROD) (PDF 1 mb) for the Boston Logan Airside Improvements Planning Project. The ROD requires that the FAA, Massport and the Community Advisory Committee (CAC) work jointly to develop a scope of a noise study that will include enhancing existing and/or developing new noise abatement measures applicable to aircraft overflights which do not diminish safety and efficiency, and/or cause adverse impacts to other communities (refer to Section VIII, Number 6 in the ROD).

To date, the study is the largest FAA funded noise study in the nation. The total dollar value for Phase 1 and Phase 2 is $8.3 million. Eighty percent ($6.6 million) is funded by Airport Improvement Program grants which are drawn from the Airport and Airway Trust Fund, which is supported by user fees (such as ticket taxes and international operation taxes) and fuel taxes. The remaining twenty percent ($1.7 million) is funded by Massport. The funds are used to provide for two consultants: one for the FAA and Massport (Ricondo & Associates) and one for the CAC (Landrum & Brown, Inc.). To further facilitate study progress and navigate more efficiently through the study, a smaller group was established named the Boston Technical Advisory Committee (or BOS/TAC) which includes a smaller number of representatives from each of the three parties.

The study is being conducted in phases.

Phase 1, called the Boston Overflight Noise Study (BONS), began in 2003 and culminated in October 2007 with an FAA environmental ROD (PDF 34 mb) that identified several CAC recommended noise abatement procedures for FAA implementation within approximately two years.

Phase 2, called the Boston Logan Airport Noise Study (BLANS), began in early 2007 and invites additional noise reduction concepts that involve both airport ground noise movements and operations in the air. During this phase, CAC proposed further ideas not evaluated in Phase 1 that may address aircraft noise concerns voiced by each community representative and the overall noise abatement goals of the CAC.

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