Is Mārupe loud from planes?

Mārupe is the most flight-path-affected municipality around Riga Airport, which sits just outside the town to the north-west. The town centre and southern districts like Tīraine and Jaunmārupe sit under low-altitude approach and departure tracks for the single north-south runway, and Mārupe is a central focus of the airport's noise action plan. Drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street's exposure.

Does Riga Airport fly over Jūrmala?

Traffic does route toward the Gulf of Riga and the Jūrmala area to the north-west, but Jūrmala is specifically protected by two noise-abatement zones — JURMALA 1, which keeps aircraft above roughly 1,500–2,000 ft, and JURMALA 2, which keeps turboprop and jet aircraft above 5,000 ft. The result is that overflight noise over the seaside resort is deliberately minimised.

Which way do Riga Airport's runways point — what is runway 18/36?

Riga has a single runway designated 18/36, running roughly north (36) to south (18), 3,200 m long. RWY 18 operations land and depart to the south over Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and Olaine; RWY 36 operations land and depart to the north over Spilve, Babīte and toward the Gulf of Riga. Which direction is in use depends mainly on the wind.

Why are Tīraine and Jaunmārupe so noisy?

Both sit directly off the southern (RWY 18) end of the runway, under the low-altitude approach and climb-out corridor. Jaunmārupe in particular is where the airport's noise-monitoring station has recorded its highest readings. When the airport is operating to the south, aircraft pass over these areas at low altitude on every movement.

When is Riga Airport quietest?

Because the airport runs H24 there is no guaranteed silent overnight window, but traffic thins considerably in the small hours and the busiest periods are the morning and early-evening banks. In the evening band (18:00–23:59 local) the airport prefers RWY 18 for take-off and RWY 36 for landing where wind permits, which shifts the noise pattern. Use the pin-drop tool above to see the hourly profile for your address.

How do I report aircraft noise around Riga Airport?

Riga International Airport runs an Environmental Noise Laboratory with permanent monitoring stations and handles noise enquiries through its environmental team. Submit reports via the airport's Environmental Noise page (riga-airport.com/en/environmental-noise) or by phone on +371 1817. Complaints feed into the noise action plan developed with Mārupe, Babīte and Olaine municipalities.

Which suburbs near Riga Airport are quietest?

Areas off the north-south axis — to the east and south-east such as Ķekava and Salaspils — see the least direct overflight, and Jūrmala is shielded by the JURMALA abatement zones. The high-exposure areas are those at the runway ends to the south (Tīraine, Jaunmārupe, Mārupe centre, Olaine) and under the northern fan. The map above lets you check any address.

Riga Flight Path Noise Map – Riga International Airport (RIX)

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

Aircraft noise around Riga in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Riga: Tīraine, Mārupe (centre), Jaunmārupe. Quietest: Jūrmala (Lielupe/Bulduri), Salaspils, Ķekava, Central Riga (old town). Busiest around 4 PM local time averaging 196 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-18.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

196

flights / day · 5,889 total

Busiest hour

4 PM

peak 93 dB

Loudest hour

9 PM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Kleisti

66 dB avg · ~162 flights/day · Busy road

Under the extended RWY 36 north corridor as traffic climbs and descends over north-west Riga

Does Riga Airport have a curfew?

No — Riga has no formal curfew.

Riga Airport operates 24 hours and there is no outright night-flight ban. Instead, the Latvian AIP imposes operational rules — during 05:00–06:00 and 20:00–21:00 only scheduled, charter or general-aviation flights may operate, and at night aircraft must adhere strictly to the published departure routes (SIDs) and fly a Noise Abatement Departure Procedure. These limit how flights are flown rather than banning them.

Riga International Airport (RIX/EVRA) is the Baltic region’s largest aviation hub, yet it sits only about 10 km south-west of Riga’s old town in flat, fast-developing Mārupe Municipality. Its single 3,200 m north-south runway (18/36) means every arrival and departure shares the same two corridors: northbound over Spilve, Pārdaugava and toward the Gulf of Riga, and southbound over Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and Olaine. The defining noise feature is the pair of JURMALA noise-abatement areas to the north-west, which force aircraft to stay high to protect the seaside resort city of Jūrmala. Unlike many European hubs, Riga has no outright night curfew — it operates 24 hours — but it runs a time-based preferential-runway scheme and a formal noise action plan agreed with Mārupe, Babīte and Olaine after years of suburban complaints.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

With a single north-south runway, noise concentrates in two corridors rather than spreading in all directions. The heaviest exposure is at the southern (RWY 18) end — Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and Mārupe town centre — where aircraft pass low on approach and climb-out. The northern (RWY 36) fan spreads over Pārdaugava districts (Imanta, Zolitūde) and on toward Babīte and the Gulf. Areas off the north-south axis, to the east and south-east, get the least direct overflight.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Tīraine	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Just off the RWY 18 south end, low-altitude approach/departure
Mārupe (centre)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Closest large suburb; turning departures; noise-plan focus
Jaunmārupe	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Under the RWY 18 southern corridor; highest recorded readings
Spilve	✈︎✈︎	North-north-east on the city side; under the northern fan
Piņķi	✈︎✈︎	Under turning northbound tracks toward Jūrmala
Babīte	✈︎✈︎	Off centreline but under westbound turning departures
Olaine	✈︎✈︎	Further down the RWY 18 southern corridor
Imanta	✈︎✈︎	Pārdaugava district under the northern arrival/departure fan
Kleisti	✈︎✈︎	Under the extended RWY 36 north corridor
Zolitūde	✈︎✈︎	Dense district off the eastern edge of the northern fan
Jūrmala (Lielupe/Bulduri)	✈︎	Protected by JURMALA abatement zones; aircraft kept high
Ķekava	✈︎	South-east, largely off the north-south corridors
Salaspils	✈︎	Well east; only high-altitude turning traffic
Central Riga (old town)	✈︎	Off-axis to the north-east; aircraft already at altitude

If aircraft noise is a primary concern, the practical move around Riga is to stay off the north-south runway axis — east and south-east toward Ķekava, Salaspils or the old town, where overflight is mostly high-altitude turning traffic. Jūrmala is a special case: despite being north-west of the field where traffic heads for the Gulf, the two JURMALA abatement areas deliberately keep aircraft high over it. The most consistently affected addresses are the southern Mārupe suburbs (Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and the town centre); if you’re looking at homes there, drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street.

Flight patterns and runway use

Riga’s single runway (18/36) is oriented roughly north to south, so runway selection is driven mainly by surface wind and aircraft performance, with a time-of-day preferential scheme layered on top. During 00:00–17:59 both directions are used according to wind. During the evening band 18:00–23:59 local, RWY 18 is preferred for take-off and RWY 36 for landing where wind permits, to manage the noise distribution.

When the airport works to the south (RWY 18), traffic crosses Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and on toward Olaine at low altitude. When it works to the north (RWY 36), the departure and arrival fan spreads over Spilve, the Pārdaugava districts and Babīte before reaching the Gulf of Riga. There is no over-water-only routing — the airport is inland — but northbound traffic does eventually reach the Gulf.

Two layers of noise control shape how flights are flown. Every Chapter-3 departure must apply a Noise Abatement Departure Procedure (NADP) per ICAO Annex 16, and at night strict adherence to the published SID is mandatory unless ATC coordinates otherwise. To the north-west, the JURMALA 1 area keeps aircraft above roughly 1,500–2,000 ft and JURMALA 2 keeps turboprop and jet traffic above 5,000 ft, protecting Jūrmala. The airport’s Environmental Noise Laboratory runs permanent monitoring stations — one relocated from Babīte to Spilve — and has published optimisations for the A220-300 fleet and take-off procedures.

The route-density layer on the map above shows this two-corridor pattern clearly: bright bands extending north and south from the single runway, with the far-field density dropping off to the east and west where only turning traffic appears.

When is it quietest?

Because Riga operates 24 hours, there is no guaranteed silent overnight window the way a curfewed airport like Sydney provides. Traffic does thin substantially in the small hours, but flights can and do operate at any time — what changes overnight is how they fly, not whether they fly:

Overnight (roughly midnight–05:00): lightest traffic, but not zero. Departures must fly the published SID and a noise-abatement climb profile.
05:00–06:00: restricted to scheduled, charter and general-aviation flights only, as the morning bank begins to build.
Morning peak (06:00–09:00): the busiest departure period, feeding connections across Europe and the Baltics.
Midday: moderate, sustained traffic.
Evening (18:00–23:59): a busy arrival period, and the band where the preferential scheme favours RWY 18 departures and RWY 36 landings.
20:00–21:00: again restricted to scheduled, charter and GA flights only.

Wind direction matters as much as time of day. A wind shift flips the operation between north and south flow, suddenly moving the low-altitude overflight from the Mārupe suburbs to the Pārdaugava side or vice versa. For your specific address, drop a pin on the map above to see the hourly profile and which corridor you sit under.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above answers the question “is this spot loud?” 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.

The Noise Heatmap layer (orange/red = louder) and the Route Density layer (purple/magenta = busier corridors) make the single-runway, two-corridor pattern obvious — a bright spine running north-south through Mārupe and Pārdaugava, fading quickly to the east and west. Most addresses well off that axis will land in the green/quiet zone, while the southern Mārupe suburbs at the RWY 18 end show the heaviest exposure. To report persistent noise, contact Riga International Airport’s Environmental Noise team via riga-airport.com/en/environmental-noise or on +371 1817.

Frequently asked questions

Is Mārupe loud from planes?: Mārupe is the most flight-path-affected municipality around Riga Airport, which sits just outside the town to the north-west. The town centre and southern districts like Tīraine and Jaunmārupe sit under low-altitude approach and departure tracks for the single north-south runway, and Mārupe is a central focus of the airport's noise action plan. Drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street's exposure.
Does Riga Airport fly over Jūrmala?: Traffic does route toward the Gulf of Riga and the Jūrmala area to the north-west, but Jūrmala is specifically protected by two noise-abatement zones — JURMALA 1, which keeps aircraft above roughly 1,500–2,000 ft, and JURMALA 2, which keeps turboprop and jet aircraft above 5,000 ft. The result is that overflight noise over the seaside resort is deliberately minimised.
Which way do Riga Airport's runways point — what is runway 18/36?: Riga has a single runway designated 18/36, running roughly north (36) to south (18), 3,200 m long. RWY 18 operations land and depart to the south over Tīraine, Jaunmārupe and Olaine; RWY 36 operations land and depart to the north over Spilve, Babīte and toward the Gulf of Riga. Which direction is in use depends mainly on the wind.
Why are Tīraine and Jaunmārupe so noisy?: Both sit directly off the southern (RWY 18) end of the runway, under the low-altitude approach and climb-out corridor. Jaunmārupe in particular is where the airport's noise-monitoring station has recorded its highest readings. When the airport is operating to the south, aircraft pass over these areas at low altitude on every movement.
When is Riga Airport quietest?: Because the airport runs H24 there is no guaranteed silent overnight window, but traffic thins considerably in the small hours and the busiest periods are the morning and early-evening banks. In the evening band (18:00–23:59 local) the airport prefers RWY 18 for take-off and RWY 36 for landing where wind permits, which shifts the noise pattern. Use the pin-drop tool above to see the hourly profile for your address.
How do I report aircraft noise around Riga Airport?: Riga International Airport runs an Environmental Noise Laboratory with permanent monitoring stations and handles noise enquiries through its environmental team. Submit reports via the airport's Environmental Noise page (riga-airport.com/en/environmental-noise) or by phone on +371 1817. Complaints feed into the noise action plan developed with Mārupe, Babīte and Olaine municipalities.
Which suburbs near Riga Airport are quietest?: Areas off the north-south axis — to the east and south-east such as Ķekava and Salaspils — see the least direct overflight, and Jūrmala is shielded by the JURMALA abatement zones. The high-exposure areas are those at the runway ends to the south (Tīraine, Jaunmārupe, Mārupe centre, Olaine) and under the northern fan. The map above lets you check any address.

Sources and further reading

Riga International Airport — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
Riga International Airport runways (EVRA) — OurAirports
EV-AD-2.EVRA Riga — Aeronautical Information Publication of Latvia — AIS Latvia (Latvijas gaisa satiksme)
Riga International Airport — Noise Abatement Procedures — Boeing (Airport Noise & Emissions Regulations)
Environmental Noise — Riga International Airport (RIX)
Riga airport has become quieter — LSM (Latvian Public Broadcasting)

Data updated 2026-10-18 — 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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Riga Flight Path Noise Map – Riga International Airport (RIX)

Aircraft noise around Riga in October 2026

Does Riga 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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