Is Noi Bai airport loud, and who does it affect most?

It depends almost entirely on geometry. Noi Bai's two runways run on a roughly east-south-east to west-north-west axis (108/288 magnetic), so the noise footprint is a long, narrow corridor off the two runway ends. Communes directly off the eastern end (Mai Dinh) and the western end (Phuc Yen) sit under the approach and departure tracks and hear the most. Areas to the north and south of the field — including central Hanoi, ~21 km to the south-south-east — are largely off-corridor and hear very little. Drop a pin on the map above to see whether your address is inside that east-west strip.

Which areas near Noi Bai get the most aircraft noise?

The high-exposure areas are the communes immediately at the field (Phu Minh / Noi Bai) and those on the extended runway centreline: Mai Dinh, about 6 km east under the eastern (29-end) corridor, and Phuc Yen, about 10 km west under the western (11-end) corridor. Quang Tien, Soc Son town and the Me Linh communes are close to the corridor but offset from the centreline, so they get sideline and turning noise rather than direct overflight.

Is central Hanoi affected by airport noise?

Very little. Central Hanoi (Hoan Kiem) lies roughly 21 km south-south-east of Noi Bai and well off the east-west flight corridor. Because Noi Bai is north-east of the city and its runways point east-west rather than toward downtown, aircraft are at cruise-climb altitude and well lateral to the centre by the time they're anywhere near it. The city centre experiences essentially no direct overflight noise.

Which way do planes fly in and out of Noi Bai?

Runway direction follows the wind. With a westerly wind, aircraft arrive on the 11s — approaching from the east-south-east, over the Soc Son side — and depart on the 29s, climbing out to the west-north-west toward Me Linh and Phuc Yen. With an easterly wind the pattern reverses: arrivals come from the west-north-west on the 29s and departures head east-south-east on the 11s. The Red River delta has a seasonal monsoon (north-easterly in winter, south-easterly in summer), so both directions see regular use through the year.

Does the Me Linh / Phuc Yen area get plane noise from Noi Bai?

Yes, this is the western side of the corridor. Phuc Yen sits close to the west-north-west extended centreline and is overflown on 29 approaches and 11 departures. Tien Chau and the wider Me Linh communes are a little south of the centreline, so they catch the same traffic but offset to the side. Noise here is heaviest when the airport is in easterly flow (arrivals approaching from the west).

Who do I contact about aircraft noise near Noi Bai?

Aviation and environmental complaints in Vietnam are handled by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) at caa.gov.vn, +84 24 3872 3600. The airport itself is run by Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV). Note that Vietnam does not publish a community noise scheme or noise-abatement programme for Noi Bai the way many Western hubs do, so formal complaint channels are more limited.

Does Noi Bai use noise-abatement flight paths like over-water approaches?

No documented programme could be confirmed. Unlike hubs that use steep approaches, over-water tracks or preferential runways to limit community noise, Noi Bai relies on standard ICAO procedures. Runway selection is driven by wind, not by a published noise-sharing plan, and the two parallel runways sit only 250 m apart, so just one is used for any given movement.

Hanoi Flight Path Noise Map – Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)

Name: Aircraft noise observations near Noi Bai International Airport
Creator: Flight Path Noise
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Aircraft noise around Hanoi in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Hanoi: Phu Minh / Noi Bai (at the field), Mai Dinh, Phuc Yen (Vinh Phuc). Quietest: Thanh Xuan (Soc Son), Hien Ninh, Dong Anh town, Soc Son rural communes (Bac Son / Nam Son), Yen Vien / Gia Lam (north Hanoi). Busiest around noon local time averaging 620 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-19.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

620

flights / day · 18,604 total

Busiest hour

noon

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

noon

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Mai Dinh

73 dB avg · ~536 flights/day · Loud conversation

On the ESE extended centreline, right under the 11 approach / 29 climb-out corridor — the most consistently overflown commune off the eastern end

Does Hanoi Airport have a curfew?

No — Hanoi has no formal curfew.

There is no published night curfew or restricted-hours movement ban at Noi Bai. Multiple guides describe it as operating around the clock (24 hours), and neither Wikipedia nor the operator, Airports Corporation of Vietnam, lists any night-time ban. Treat the airport as effectively 24/7 — if you live under one of the runway corridors, flights can pass overhead at any hour.

Noi Bai International Airport (HAN/VVNB) is northern Vietnam’s largest airport and the sole commercial gateway for the Hanoi capital region — yet, unusually for a major international hub, it sits about 25–35 km north-east of central Hanoi, out in the rural communes of Soc Son district rather than in a dense urban fabric. Its two parallel runways run on a roughly east-south-east to west-north-west axis (108/288 magnetic), so the noise footprint is a long, narrow corridor that stretches east toward Soc Son and Mai Dinh and west toward Me Linh and Phuc Yen, while central Hanoi itself is essentially off-corridor and largely shielded by distance. The land around the field is still dominated by paddy, industrial parks and scattered villages, and Vietnam publishes no night curfew at Noi Bai, so the airport runs effectively around the clock. The defining noise fact here is geometry: if you are not in the narrow east-west strip off the runway ends, you hear very little.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Noi Bai has two parallel runways just 250 m apart: the original northern runway 11L/29R (3,200 m, Cat I) and the longer southern runway 11R/29L (3,800 m, Cat II, opened 2006), which handles most wide-body international traffic. The 11 thresholds are at the western end of the field and the 29 thresholds at the eastern end. Because the two runways are so close together, only one is used for any given movement, and both point the same way — so the entire noise footprint is squeezed into a single east-west corridor.

That makes exposure unusually easy to read off a map. The communes that sit on the extended centreline off either end are the loud ones; almost everything to the north and south of the field is comparatively quiet.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Phu Minh / Noi Bai	✈︎✈︎✈︎	At the field; under low movements at both ends
Mai Dinh	✈︎✈︎✈︎	~6 km east, directly on the ESE centreline
Phuc Yen	✈︎✈︎✈︎	~10 km west, on the WNW centreline
Tien Chau / Me Linh	✈︎✈︎	West corridor, offset south of centreline
Quang Tien	✈︎✈︎	North of the eastern corridor; sideline noise
Soc Son town	✈︎✈︎	North-east of the field; turning departures
Kim Hoa / Quang Minh	✈︎✈︎	South of the western corridor
Phu Cuong	✈︎✈︎	Lateral to the runways; sideline noise
Thanh Xuan (Soc Son)	✈︎	Offset well north of the eastern corridor
Hien Ninh	✈︎	High-altitude overflight only
Dong Anh town	✈︎	South across the floodplain, off the axis
Soc Son rural (Bac/Nam Son)	✈︎	North of the field, clear of both corridors
Yen Vien / Gia Lam	✈︎	~20 km out and off-axis; cruise-climb height
Central Hanoi (Hoan Kiem)	✈︎	~21 km SSE, off the east-west corridor

If aircraft noise is a primary concern, the practical move around Noi Bai is to stay off the east-west line through the runways — anywhere broadly north or south of the field. Central Hanoi, Dong Anh and the hilly Soc Son communes to the north are all comfortably clear. The areas to avoid if you want quiet are the centreline communes off the runway ends: Mai Dinh to the east and Phuc Yen to the west, plus the on-field commune of Phu Minh. For anything in between, drop a pin on the map above to see how close your address really is to the corridor.

Flight patterns and runway use

Both runways lie on an approximately 108/288 magnetic heading (east-south-east to west-north-west) and sit just 250 m apart, so the airport uses one runway direction at a time and the choice is driven by wind:

Westerly wind — aircraft arrive on the 11s, approaching from the east-south-east over the Soc Son and Mai Dinh side, and depart on the 29s, climbing out to the west-north-west over Me Linh and Phuc Yen.
Easterly wind — the pattern reverses: arrivals come in from the west-north-west on the 29s (over Phuc Yen / Me Linh) and departures head east-south-east on the 11s (over Mai Dinh and toward Soc Son).

Either way, the footprint is the same long, narrow east-west corridor off both runway ends. Areas to the north and south of the field — and central Hanoi well to the south-south-east — sit largely off the approach and departure tracks. Prevailing winds in the Red River delta are seasonal (a north-easterly winter monsoon and a south-easterly summer monsoon), so both runway directions see regular use through the year rather than one dominating.

No over-water, steep-approach or formal preferential-runway noise-abatement programme could be confirmed for Noi Bai; the airport relies on standard ICAO procedures rather than a documented community noise scheme. The route-density layer on the map above shows the result clearly: a bright east-west band through the runways that fades quickly to either side, with little spillover toward the city.

When is it quietest?

The honest answer for Noi Bai is that there is no built-in quiet window. With no published curfew, the airport operates effectively 24 hours, so a centreline commune like Mai Dinh or Phuc Yen can be overflown at any hour, including overnight freight and repositioning flights. This is the opposite of curfew airports like Sydney, where an overnight ban guarantees residents a silent stretch.

What changes through the day is intensity, not whether flights run at all:

Early morning (5 AM – 8 AM): heavy departure bank as international and domestic services push out.
Daytime (9 AM – 4 PM): sustained, moderate traffic.
Evening (5 PM – 9 PM): a second peak as long-haul arrivals and domestic returns stack up.
Overnight: thinner, but not zero — expect occasional movements.

The bigger swing for most residents is the wind shift. When the flow changes from westerly to easterly, traffic that was routing out west over Me Linh and Phuc Yen suddenly arrives from the west instead, and the eastern communes around Mai Dinh and Soc Son trade arrivals for departures. If your address is near either end of the corridor, your quietest days are the ones when the wind favours the opposite runway direction.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above is the fastest way to answer “is this spot loud?” — and near Noi Bai the answer hinges entirely on whether you’re inside the east-west corridor. Three steps:

Search your address or postcode in the bar at the bottom of the map.
Drop a pin — click the location marker that appears.
Read the noise report in the sidebar: average daily noise (Leq), peak observed dB, flights per day passing within 2 km, and an hourly breakdown.

Use the Route Density layer (purple/magenta = busier corridors) to see the east-west band through the runways, and the Noise Heatmap layer (orange/red = louder) to judge how far the loud zone extends past communes like Mai Dinh and Phuc Yen. Most addresses that are clearly north or south of the field — including central Hanoi, Dong Anh and the Soc Son hill communes — will land in the quiet zone. The addresses worth checking carefully are the ones strung along that narrow line east and west of the runways, because exposure drops off sharply as soon as you move off the centreline. With no curfew to fall back on, overnight noise matters here too, so check the hourly profile, not just the daily average.

Frequently asked questions

Is Noi Bai airport loud, and who does it affect most?: It depends almost entirely on geometry. Noi Bai's two runways run on a roughly east-south-east to west-north-west axis (108/288 magnetic), so the noise footprint is a long, narrow corridor off the two runway ends. Communes directly off the eastern end (Mai Dinh) and the western end (Phuc Yen) sit under the approach and departure tracks and hear the most. Areas to the north and south of the field — including central Hanoi, ~21 km to the south-south-east — are largely off-corridor and hear very little. Drop a pin on the map above to see whether your address is inside that east-west strip.
Which areas near Noi Bai get the most aircraft noise?: The high-exposure areas are the communes immediately at the field (Phu Minh / Noi Bai) and those on the extended runway centreline: Mai Dinh, about 6 km east under the eastern (29-end) corridor, and Phuc Yen, about 10 km west under the western (11-end) corridor. Quang Tien, Soc Son town and the Me Linh communes are close to the corridor but offset from the centreline, so they get sideline and turning noise rather than direct overflight.
Is central Hanoi affected by airport noise?: Very little. Central Hanoi (Hoan Kiem) lies roughly 21 km south-south-east of Noi Bai and well off the east-west flight corridor. Because Noi Bai is north-east of the city and its runways point east-west rather than toward downtown, aircraft are at cruise-climb altitude and well lateral to the centre by the time they're anywhere near it. The city centre experiences essentially no direct overflight noise.
Which way do planes fly in and out of Noi Bai?: Runway direction follows the wind. With a westerly wind, aircraft arrive on the 11s — approaching from the east-south-east, over the Soc Son side — and depart on the 29s, climbing out to the west-north-west toward Me Linh and Phuc Yen. With an easterly wind the pattern reverses: arrivals come from the west-north-west on the 29s and departures head east-south-east on the 11s. The Red River delta has a seasonal monsoon (north-easterly in winter, south-easterly in summer), so both directions see regular use through the year.
Does the Me Linh / Phuc Yen area get plane noise from Noi Bai?: Yes, this is the western side of the corridor. Phuc Yen sits close to the west-north-west extended centreline and is overflown on 29 approaches and 11 departures. Tien Chau and the wider Me Linh communes are a little south of the centreline, so they catch the same traffic but offset to the side. Noise here is heaviest when the airport is in easterly flow (arrivals approaching from the west).
Who do I contact about aircraft noise near Noi Bai?: Aviation and environmental complaints in Vietnam are handled by the Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV) at caa.gov.vn, +84 24 3872 3600. The airport itself is run by Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV). Note that Vietnam does not publish a community noise scheme or noise-abatement programme for Noi Bai the way many Western hubs do, so formal complaint channels are more limited.
Does Noi Bai use noise-abatement flight paths like over-water approaches?: No documented programme could be confirmed. Unlike hubs that use steep approaches, over-water tracks or preferential runways to limit community noise, Noi Bai relies on standard ICAO procedures. Runway selection is driven by wind, not by a published noise-sharing plan, and the two parallel runways sit only 250 m apart, so just one is used for any given movement.

Sources and further reading

Noi Bai International Airport — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
Noi Bai International Airport (official operator page) — Airports Corporation of Vietnam (ACV)
Noi Bai International Airport: Ultimate guide for arrivals and departures — VinWonders
Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam — Wikipedia
Expanded Terminal T2 at Noi Bai International Airport makes debut — VietnamPlus

Data updated 2026-10-19 — live ADS-B monitoring, rolling 30-day statistics (methodology). Article text revised 2026-05-30.

30 dB	Whisper
45 dB	Quiet residential
55 dB	Normal conversation
65 dB	Busy road
75 dB	Vacuum cleaner
85 dB	Heavy traffic
95 dB	Motorcycle nearby

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Hanoi Flight Path Noise Map – Noi Bai International Airport (HAN)

Aircraft noise around Hanoi in October 2026

Does Hanoi Airport have a curfew?

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Flight patterns and runway use

When is it quietest?

How to check noise at your specific address

Frequently asked questions

Sources and further reading

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