Beverly Airport Director Says Noise Complaints Take Nosedive

BEVERLY, MA — Beverly Airport Director Gabriel Hanafin touted about a 90 percent decrease in noise complaints from neighboring residents over the past year during an update with the Beverly City Council Monday night where he also highlighted the airport's financial stability and capital improvement plans.

Hanafin told the Council that through his office's efforts to address specific complaints since an updated noise abatement program was instituted in September 2023, complaints have fallen from 65 to 100 per month to five registered complaints this past December and six in January.

"Not only have we noticed a change in the number of complaints that we've gotten," Hanafin said, "but the whole tone of the complaints has totally changed. It's not so angry and expletive-ridden. It's much more someone having a conversation and wanting to ask questions."

Beverly City Councilor Kathleen Feldman, whose Ward 5 is home to the airport, said she has seen a dramatic diminishing of noise complaints directed at the airport through her as well.

The favorable response from the City Council was a stark contrast to most Select Board meetings in Danvers about the airport in recent years — specifically regarding noise and the use of lead fuel during takeoffs and landings over Danvers neighborhoods, given that lead fuel remains the industry standard.

• 'People Were Very Angry': Beverly Airport Director Talks Danvers Noise Complaints

Hanafin said in 2024 there were 330 noise complaints sent in from 35 addresses near the airport and that information was used to determine which neighborhoods were being hit with the most noise impact. He said seven of those addresses were in Beverly.

Hanafin told the Beverly City Council that over the past 18 months his office logged each complaint and then addressed them directly with the operator associated with them, leading to a favorable response among both neighbors and airport users.

"That's, perhaps, where most of the problems have been," Hanafin said. "Operators were doing activities out at the airport, generating noise complaints, but they had no way of knowing that they were generating noise complaints."

He said that even though the airport's authority over the flights ends as soon as the plane's wheels leave the ground, most of the airport's tenants are "very amiable to the recommendations we make."

Hanafin added that when he first started logging the complaints — something that was not done under previous directors — he would fill up an entire spreadsheet with complaints directed at flight schools alone but that now they are only showing up "once in a while.

He said that is because"they have really seriously taken being a partner with airport administration to try to change their operations where they can to make life a little bit quieter for our neighbors."

(Scott Souza is a Patch field editor covering Beverly, Danvers, Marblehead, Peabody, Salem and Swampscott. He can be reached at Scott.Souza@Patch.com. X/Twitter: @Scott_Souza.)