Why are planes suddenly so loud over the Peninsula?

The usual answer is NextGen. When the FAA rolled out satellite-based flight paths in 2015, the broad arrival and departure swaths over the Peninsula were squeezed into narrow, repeatable corridors — the same tracks flown over the same neighborhoods, hundreds of times a day. Total noise didn't necessarily rise, but its concentration did, and complaint volumes jumped from a few hundred a month to hundreds of thousands a year. Drop a pin on the map above to see whether your address sits under one of those concentrated tracks.

Is San Bruno loud from SFO planes?

Yes — San Bruno (especially the Crestmoor and Rollingwood areas) is among the most overflown communities around SFO. It sits just off the west end of the 28/10 runways, directly under 28 straight-out and Shoreline departure tracks. A straight-out departure on Runway 28 is the least-desirable, most-overhead procedure and is discouraged at all hours, but it still happens. Use the pin-drop tool above to see the flight count for your specific street.

Is Millbrae affected by SFO arrival noise?

Yes. Millbrae sits immediately south of the airport, directly beneath the West Plan Runway 28 arrival final approach as aircraft descend in low over the bay shore. Because the West Plan runs about 81% of the time, that arrival stream is the dominant noise source for Millbrae most days.

Why is Brisbane noisy when it's north of the airport?

Brisbane sits under the northbound climb-out from Runways 1L/1R, which are the primary domestic departure runways under the West Plan. So Brisbane's noise comes from departures clawing for altitude rather than arrivals. It has been a focus of SFO's precision-navigation tests aimed at shifting or dispersing those departure tracks.

Which runways does SFO use most, and why does it matter for noise?

SFO has four runways in two intersecting closely-spaced pairs. The prevailing west-northwesterly wind funnels through the San Bruno Gap and supports the West Plan about 81% of the time — domestic departures climb out north on 1L/1R, while arrivals and overseas departures use 28L/28R, descending in low over the Bay. In rainstorms (~4%) winds shift and the airport flips to the Southeast Plan, departing on 10 and arriving on 19. Your noise exposure depends heavily on which plan is running.

How do I report SFO aircraft noise?

Contact the SFO Aircraft Noise Abatement Office. File online at flysfo.com/about/community-noise/report-aircraft-noise, call +1-650-821-4736 (alternate 1-877-206-8290), or email sfo.noise@flysfo.com. Complaints feed into the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable, which tracks them by neighborhood and uses them to push for flight-path changes.

Does coverage on this map include all aircraft?

Yes — SFO's commercial fleet has near-complete ADS-B coverage, so the heatmap and route-density layers reflect actual traffic accurately. The main gaps are a small amount of general-aviation traffic from nearby reliever fields, which doesn't operate from SFO.

San Francisco Flight Path Noise Map – San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

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

Aircraft noise around San Francisco in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near San Francisco: San Bruno (Crestmoor / Rollingwood area), South San Francisco (Westborough), Millbrae, Brisbane. Quietest: Colma, Belmont, Half Moon Bay, Redwood City. Busiest around 2 PM local time averaging 1594 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-08.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

1594

flights / day · 47,805 total

Busiest hour

2 PM

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

2 PM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

South San Francisco (Westborough)

69 dB avg · ~766 flights/day · Busy road

Up on the western ridge near Skyline; falls within the FAA 65 dB contour and sits under departure and turn paths.

Does San Francisco Airport have a curfew?

No — San Francisco has no formal curfew.

SFO has no mandatory curfew or night flight ban. Noise control overnight is voluntary, run through the Jon C. Long Fly Quiet Program and the SFO/Community Roundtable. Between roughly 1 AM and 6 AM the airport asks airlines to depart east from Runways 10L/10R out over the Bay, and to fly Shoreline or Gap departure turns away from homes west of the field. Compliance is scored and awarded annually rather than enforced — there are no fines.

San Francisco International Airport (SFO/KSFO) has a noise story defined less by a curfew and more by a tech-and-data-fuelled residents’ revolt. When the FAA rolled out its satellite-based NextGen flight paths in 2015, the broad arrival and departure swaths over the Peninsula were squeezed into narrow “superhighways in the sky,” concentrating jet noise over a handful of neighborhoods and detonating complaint volumes — from a few hundred a month by dozens of people into hundreds of thousands a year from thousands of residents. Geometry makes SFO unusual: with two intersecting pairs of closely-spaced parallel runways on a narrow bayfront shelf, the airport leans on the prevailing west-northwesterly San Bruno Gap wind to run its West Plan roughly 81% of the time — arrivals in low over the water, departures climbing out to the north. There is no mandatory curfew; instead SFO relies on a voluntary Fly Quiet program to keep jets off the dense residential blocks immediately west of the field. The result is a long-running, well-organized community-roundtable fight that is as much about flight-path politics as raw decibels.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

SFO has four runways arranged as two intersecting, closely-spaced parallel pairs: the 1/19 pair (1L/19R at 2,332 m and 1R/19L at 2,637 m) and the longer 10/28 pair (10L/28R at 3,618 m, the longest, and 10R/28L at 3,469 m). Under the dominant West Plan, the 1s handle domestic departures northbound and the 28s handle arrivals and overseas departures from the east. That fixed geometry — squeezed onto a narrow shelf between the Bay and the Peninsula hills — is what makes some communities consistently loud and others nearly clear.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
San Bruno (Crestmoor/Rollingwood)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Off the west end of 28/10; under 28 straight-out and Shoreline departures
South San Francisco (Westborough)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Within the FAA 65 dB contour; under departure and turn paths
Millbrae	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Directly beneath the West Plan 28 arrival final approach
Brisbane	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Under northbound 1L/1R departure climb-outs
Hillsborough	✈︎✈︎	Off the south end under West Plan arrival corridors
Burlingame	✈︎✈︎	Bay shore on the 28 arrival approach side
Pacifica	✈︎✈︎	Over the hills under 28 departures and turns
Daly City	✈︎✈︎	Wind- and route-dependent departure overflight
Foster City	✈︎✈︎	Across the bay on the 28 arrival path
San Mateo	✈︎✈︎	Under arrival corridors feeding the 28 finals
Colma	✈︎	Off the primary corridors; mostly non-residential land
Belmont	✈︎	Down-Peninsula; intermittent high-altitude arrivals
Half Moon Bay	✈︎	Coastal, beyond the hills and largely off-corridor
Redwood City	✈︎	Higher-altitude arrival flows merging toward SFO

If aircraft noise is your primary concern, the pattern around SFO is strongly east-west and runway-driven rather than a simple distance ring. The communities packed in tight off the west ends of the runways — San Bruno, South San Francisco’s Westborough, Millbrae — and the departure-corridor cities to the north (Brisbane) are the most consistently affected. Down-Peninsula cities like Belmont and Redwood City, and the coastal towns beyond the hills like Half Moon Bay, catch traffic at much higher altitude and far less often. Because so much of SFO’s exposure is about which narrow NextGen track you happen to sit under, two homes a few blocks apart can differ sharply — drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street.

Flight patterns and runway use

SFO’s runway use is dictated by wind, and the prevailing wind here is unusually consistent. West-northwesterly air funnels through the San Bruno Gap in the coastal hills, which lets the airport run its West Plan about 81% of the time. Under the West Plan, domestic departures use Runways 1L/1R, climbing out northbound over Brisbane and away from the homes immediately west of the field, while arrivals and overseas/heavy departures use Runways 28L/28R — descending in low over the Bay and the bay-shore communities from the east. That split is why Millbrae and Burlingame hear arrivals while Brisbane hears departures.

During rainstorms — roughly 4% of the time — winds back around to the south-southeast and the airport switches to the Southeast Plan, departing on Runways 10 and arriving on Runways 19. It’s infrequent, but it briefly reverses who hears what.

Overnight, SFO’s voluntary noise-abatement procedures kick in. The preferred move is to depart east from Runways 10L/10R out over the Bay between roughly 1 AM and 6 AM. If a westbound 28 departure is unavoidable, pilots are asked to fly the Shoreline Departure or the Gap (Quiet) Departure, both of which turn right immediately after takeoff to avoid the dense neighborhoods directly west of the field. The straight-out 28 departure overflies populated communities — San Bruno worst of all — and is the least-desirable procedure, discouraged at all hours.

The route-density layer on the map above shows the cumulative result of the 2015 NextGen redesign: bright, narrow corridors rather than the diffuse smears of the pre-2015 era. SFO has since tested enhanced and precision navigation to slightly disperse or shift specific tracks (for example over Brisbane), but the concentrated-corridor character is still the root of the modern complaint surge.

When is it quietest?

SFO has no curfew, so there is no guaranteed silent window the way Sydney or London Heathrow residents get. What you have instead is a voluntary overnight lull and the natural ebb of the schedule:

1 AM – 6 AM: lightest traffic, and what little flies is asked to depart east over the Bay on Runways 10L/10R under the Fly Quiet preferential-runway program. Quiet for west-side communities, but not silent and not enforced.
6 AM – 9 AM: morning departure bank builds; domestic 1L/1R climb-outs ramp up over Brisbane and the north.
Midday: sustained arrivals on the 28s over Millbrae, Burlingame and the bay shore.
Late afternoon – evening: heavy international and domestic arrival banks stack onto the 28 finals; this is often the most relentless stretch for the bay-shore arrival corridor.
Late evening: tapers, but with no hard curfew, late and delayed flights can still arrive well past midnight.

The other variable is wind. The West Plan holds most of the time, but a rare rainstorm flipping the airport to the Southeast Plan will suddenly move the noise — arrivals shifting to Runway 19 over the south, departures to Runway 10 over the Bay. For the hour-by-hour profile at your address, drop a pin on the map above.

How to check noise at your specific address

Because SFO’s exposure is so track-dependent, a citywide generalization won’t tell you whether your block is loud. The map above will. 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 West Plan pattern obvious — the northbound 1L/1R departure corridor over Brisbane and the inbound 28 arrival corridor over the bay shore. Addresses outside the tight ring of high-exposure west-side and north-side communities (San Bruno, Westborough, Millbrae, Brisbane) generally land in the quieter zone.

If you want to act on what you find, file with the SFO Aircraft Noise Abatement Office at flysfo.com/about/community-noise/report-aircraft-noise, by phone on +1-650-821-4736, or by email to sfo.noise@flysfo.com. Logged complaints feed the SFO/Community Roundtable, which tracks them by neighborhood — the same data-driven pressure that put SFO’s NextGen flight paths on the map in the first place.

Frequently asked questions

Why are planes suddenly so loud over the Peninsula?: The usual answer is NextGen. When the FAA rolled out satellite-based flight paths in 2015, the broad arrival and departure swaths over the Peninsula were squeezed into narrow, repeatable corridors — the same tracks flown over the same neighborhoods, hundreds of times a day. Total noise didn't necessarily rise, but its concentration did, and complaint volumes jumped from a few hundred a month to hundreds of thousands a year. Drop a pin on the map above to see whether your address sits under one of those concentrated tracks.
Is San Bruno loud from SFO planes?: Yes — San Bruno (especially the Crestmoor and Rollingwood areas) is among the most overflown communities around SFO. It sits just off the west end of the 28/10 runways, directly under 28 straight-out and Shoreline departure tracks. A straight-out departure on Runway 28 is the least-desirable, most-overhead procedure and is discouraged at all hours, but it still happens. Use the pin-drop tool above to see the flight count for your specific street.
Is Millbrae affected by SFO arrival noise?: Yes. Millbrae sits immediately south of the airport, directly beneath the West Plan Runway 28 arrival final approach as aircraft descend in low over the bay shore. Because the West Plan runs about 81% of the time, that arrival stream is the dominant noise source for Millbrae most days.
Why is Brisbane noisy when it's north of the airport?: Brisbane sits under the northbound climb-out from Runways 1L/1R, which are the primary domestic departure runways under the West Plan. So Brisbane's noise comes from departures clawing for altitude rather than arrivals. It has been a focus of SFO's precision-navigation tests aimed at shifting or dispersing those departure tracks.
Which runways does SFO use most, and why does it matter for noise?: SFO has four runways in two intersecting closely-spaced pairs. The prevailing west-northwesterly wind funnels through the San Bruno Gap and supports the West Plan about 81% of the time — domestic departures climb out north on 1L/1R, while arrivals and overseas departures use 28L/28R, descending in low over the Bay. In rainstorms (~4%) winds shift and the airport flips to the Southeast Plan, departing on 10 and arriving on 19. Your noise exposure depends heavily on which plan is running.
How do I report SFO aircraft noise?: Contact the SFO Aircraft Noise Abatement Office. File online at flysfo.com/about/community-noise/report-aircraft-noise, call +1-650-821-4736 (alternate 1-877-206-8290), or email sfo.noise@flysfo.com. Complaints feed into the SFO Airport/Community Roundtable, which tracks them by neighborhood and uses them to push for flight-path changes.
Does coverage on this map include all aircraft?: Yes — SFO's commercial fleet has near-complete ADS-B coverage, so the heatmap and route-density layers reflect actual traffic accurately. The main gaps are a small amount of general-aviation traffic from nearby reliever fields, which doesn't operate from SFO.

Sources and further reading

San Francisco International Airport — Wikipedia — Wikipedia
Fly Quiet Program — preferential runways, Shoreline/Gap departures — SFO Airport/Community Roundtable
Report Aircraft Noise / Noise Abatement Office contact — San Francisco International Airport (flySFO)
SFO Noise Complaints Skyrocket After Flight Paths Changed — CBS News San Francisco
New SFO flight paths causing record airplane noise complaints — Peninsula Press
SFO tests system to reduce flight noise in nearby neighborhoods — ABC7 News

Data updated 2026-10-08 — live ADS-B monitoring, rolling 30-day statistics (methodology). Article text revised 2026-06-12.

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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San Francisco Flight Path Noise Map – San Francisco International Airport (SFO)

Aircraft noise around San Francisco in October 2026

Does San Francisco 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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