Is Maipú noisy from airport flights?

Yes — Maipú is one of the most affected communes. Because Santiago almost always operates in south flow (aircraft taking off and landing toward the 17 runways), departures climb out directly over Maipú, including the Ciudad Satélite area. Maipú is one of three communes covered by the airport's 65 dB residential noise limit and has its own fixed DGAC noise-monitoring terminal. Drop a pin on the map above to see your street's exposure.

Which Santiago communes are under the SCL flight path?

In the usual south-flow configuration, departures climb out over Pudahuel, Maipú and Cerro Navia (the three communes named in the second runway's environmental ruling), with Lo Prado catching lateral noise. Arrivals descend from the north over Lampa and Colina farmland. When the airport occasionally swaps to north flow (the 35 runways), the geometry reverses and the northern communes including Quilicura see more departure noise.

How do I report aircraft noise in Santiago?

Aircraft noise is handled by the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), not the airport operator. DGAC runs a permanent noise-monitoring network for Arturo Merino Benítez, with fixed terminals in Pudahuel and Maipú and a public Travis monitoring platform. You can reach the DGAC noise-monitoring service at +56 2 2439 2000 or via its Monitoreo Ruido AMB page.

What is the 65 dB limit at Santiago airport?

The environmental authorization (RCA) tied to the airport's second runway caps aircraft noise at 65 dB over residential areas of the Maipú, Pudahuel and Cerro Navia communes. DGAC monitors compliance continuously through its fixed terminals and the Travis platform. It is a residential-area limit on aircraft procedures, not a guarantee that no individual flyover is ever louder.

Is Quilicura under the Santiago flight path?

Quilicura sits off the northern end of the runways, to the north-east of the airport, near the 35 (north-flow) corridor rather than the main southern departure track. In normal south flow it gets relatively little direct overflight, but it has been flagged in planning studies for noise as housing expands toward the field, and it is more exposed on the rarer days when the airport runs in north flow.

Why are takeoffs always heading south at SCL?

Santiago's prevailing surface winds are southerly, and aircraft take off and land into the wind, so the airport runs in south flow (toward the 17 runways) the large majority of the time. The flat western plain has no over-water or steep-approach options, so noise management relies on preferential-runway rules, the late-night switch to 17L, and the 65 dB residential limit. The 35 northbound configuration is used comparatively rarely.

Which Santiago neighborhoods are quietest for aircraft noise?

Communes east of the runways and away from the north-south flight tracks — Renca, Estación Central, Quinta Normal, Cerrillos — see only lateral or high-altitude overflight. The highest exposure is the southern departure corridor through Pudahuel, Maipú and Cerro Navia. Use the pin-drop map above to check any specific address.

Santiago Flight Path Noise Map – Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)

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

Aircraft noise around Santiago in October 2026

Loudest neighborhoods near Santiago: Pudahuel (commune centre / Pudahuel Sur), Ciudad Satélite (Maipú), Maipú (centre), Cerro Navia. Quietest: Estación Central, Renca, Cerrillos, Quinta Normal, Til Til. Busiest around 10 AM local time averaging 481 flights/day. Source: Flight Path Noise monitoring data, 30 days to 2026-10-17.

Flights by hour · last 30 days

12a6a12p6p

Average daily traffic

481

flights / day · 14,430 total

Busiest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest hour

10 AM

peak 95 dB

Loudest residential area

Ciudad Satélite (Maipú)

67 dB avg · ~265 flights/day · Busy road

On the southern departure track through Maipú, one of the communes covered by the 65 dB residential noise limit

Does Santiago Airport have a curfew?

No — 24-hour operation, with only an overnight noise-abatement runway rule.

Arturo Merino Benítez operates 24 hours and there is no full curfew. Instead there is a mandatory late-night noise-abatement rule. During roughly 00:00–07:00 local (times are approximate), departures may not use the normal preferred runway 17R and must shift to the easterly runway 17L. Around a quarter of all operations happen in the 22:00–07:00 night window, so the night soundscape shifts rather than stops.

Arturo Merino Benítez (SCL/SCEL) sits on the flat western plain of Santiago, in the Pudahuel commune about 15 km north-west of the city centre. Its two long parallel runways are aligned almost due north-south (17/35), and because Santiago’s prevailing surface winds are southerly, the airport runs in south flow the overwhelming majority of the time: aircraft take off and land toward the south on the 17 runways. That sends climb-out noise out over the dense residential communes of Maipú, Pudahuel and Cerro Navia. The defining fact here is regulatory — that southern corridor is governed by an environmental ruling (RCA) tied to the second runway, which caps aircraft noise at 65 dB over those residential areas and underpins a permanent DGAC noise-monitoring network with fixed terminals in Pudahuel and Maipú. There is no full curfew, but late-night noise abatement reroutes departures off the closer runway onto 17L overnight, so the night soundscape shifts rather than stops.

Which neighborhoods are quietest — and which aren’t

Arturo Merino Benítez runs two parallel asphalt runways, both about 3,750 m long: 17L/35R (the easterly runway, 55 m wide, with the 35R threshold displaced roughly 549 m) and 17R/35L (the westerly runway, 45 m wide; some sources list it at 3,800 m). In normal operations the two are segregated — one mainly for arrivals, the other mainly for departures — with 17R the standard preferred departure runway by day.

Area	Aircraft noise	Why
Pudahuel (centre / Sur)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Directly under the 17 departure climb-out; hosts a DGAC noise terminal
Ciudad Satélite (Maipú)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	On the southern departure track through Maipú; in the 65 dB limit zone
Maipú (centre)	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Dense commune squarely under south-flow departures; own DGAC terminal
Cerro Navia	✈︎✈︎✈︎	Named in the second-runway ruling as a protected residential area
Lo Prado	✈︎✈︎	Just east of the main corridor; lateral departure noise
Quilicura	✈︎✈︎	Off the northern runway end near the 35 corridor; more exposed in north flow
Lampa	✈︎✈︎	Northern arrival descent in south flow; departures in north flow
Colina	✈︎✈︎	Extended northern approach corridor, further out and intermittent
Estación Central	✈︎	East of the core corridor; lateral/high overflight only
Renca	✈︎	East of the runways, off the main north-south tracks
Cerrillos	✈︎	South-east of the departure fan, outside the loudest contour
Quinta Normal	✈︎	East of the corridor; mostly high-altitude overflight
Til Til	✈︎	Far north on the edge of the tracking radius

If aircraft noise is the priority, the practical move in Santiago is east of the runways — communes such as Renca, Quinta Normal and Estación Central sit off the north-south flight tracks and catch only lateral or high-altitude overflight. The clear high-exposure band is the southern departure corridor through Pudahuel, Maipú and Cerro Navia. If you’re looking at property in those communes, drop a pin on the map above to see your specific street’s exposure.

Flight patterns and runway use

South flow is the rule, not the exception. With southerly surface winds dominant, departures and arrivals point toward the 17 runways the large majority of the year, and the 35 (northbound) configuration is used comparatively rarely. In south flow:

Departures climb out toward the south and south-east over Maipú, Pudahuel and Cerro Navia. This is the busiest, loudest corridor and the one the 65 dB residential limit is built around.
Arrivals descend from the north, over the Lampa and Colina farmland, where housing is sparser.

The two parallel runways are normally segregated — one handling arrivals, the other departures — and 17R is the preferred daytime departure runway. The terrain is flat, so there are no over-water or steep-approach noise tricks available; management relies almost entirely on the preferential-runway scheme, the overnight departure switch, and the fixed 65 dB cap.

When the airport does flip to north flow (35), the geometry reverses. Arrivals then descend over the southern communes, and departures climb out to the north over Lampa and toward Quilicura. That swap is what makes the northern communes “intermittent” rather than quiet — they are calm most of the time but notably busier on the days the wind turns.

The route-density layer on the map above shows this clearly: a strong bright corridor extending south from the runways (departures over Maipú/Pudahuel) and a fainter band reaching north (arrivals over Lampa/Colina), with relatively little energy spreading east or west.

When is it quietest?

There is no full curfew — Arturo Merino Benítez operates 24 hours — but the night is genuinely different from a busy airport with no restrictions at all:

Late night (~00:00 – 07:00): mandatory noise abatement. The normal preferred departure runway 17R is not used for departures; traffic shifts to 17L instead, moving the climb-out track and changing which homes hear it. The exact window times are approximate, but the 17L-not-17R rule is the key overnight feature.
Overall night share: roughly a quarter of all operations fall in the 22:00–07:00 window (DGAC reports about 76% day / 24% night), so nights are quieter than days but far from silent.
Daytime: the airport works through morning and evening banks of long-haul and regional traffic, with 17R as the standard departure runway and sustained movements across the middle of the day.

The single biggest variable for any one address is wind. A shift from south to north flow changes everything about which communes are under departures versus arrivals. For the hourly profile at your location, drop a pin on the map above.

How to check noise at your specific address

The map above is the answer to “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 south-flow pattern obvious — a bright departure fan over Maipú and Pudahuel and a quieter arrival band to the north. Most addresses east of the runways (Renca, Quinta Normal, Estación Central) will land in the quieter zone for daytime noise.

For the official picture, the DGAC runs a permanent noise-monitoring network for the airport, with fixed terminals in Pudahuel and Maipú and a public Travis monitoring platform, plus the 65 dB residential limit it enforces. To report aircraft noise, contact the DGAC noise-monitoring service (Monitoreo Ruido AMB) at +56 2 2439 2000 — noise is a DGAC responsibility, not the airport operator’s.

Frequently asked questions

Is Maipú noisy from airport flights?: Yes — Maipú is one of the most affected communes. Because Santiago almost always operates in south flow (aircraft taking off and landing toward the 17 runways), departures climb out directly over Maipú, including the Ciudad Satélite area. Maipú is one of three communes covered by the airport's 65 dB residential noise limit and has its own fixed DGAC noise-monitoring terminal. Drop a pin on the map above to see your street's exposure.
Which Santiago communes are under the SCL flight path?: In the usual south-flow configuration, departures climb out over Pudahuel, Maipú and Cerro Navia (the three communes named in the second runway's environmental ruling), with Lo Prado catching lateral noise. Arrivals descend from the north over Lampa and Colina farmland. When the airport occasionally swaps to north flow (the 35 runways), the geometry reverses and the northern communes including Quilicura see more departure noise.
How do I report aircraft noise in Santiago?: Aircraft noise is handled by the Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC), not the airport operator. DGAC runs a permanent noise-monitoring network for Arturo Merino Benítez, with fixed terminals in Pudahuel and Maipú and a public Travis monitoring platform. You can reach the DGAC noise-monitoring service at +56 2 2439 2000 or via its Monitoreo Ruido AMB page.
What is the 65 dB limit at Santiago airport?: The environmental authorization (RCA) tied to the airport's second runway caps aircraft noise at 65 dB over residential areas of the Maipú, Pudahuel and Cerro Navia communes. DGAC monitors compliance continuously through its fixed terminals and the Travis platform. It is a residential-area limit on aircraft procedures, not a guarantee that no individual flyover is ever louder.
Is Quilicura under the Santiago flight path?: Quilicura sits off the northern end of the runways, to the north-east of the airport, near the 35 (north-flow) corridor rather than the main southern departure track. In normal south flow it gets relatively little direct overflight, but it has been flagged in planning studies for noise as housing expands toward the field, and it is more exposed on the rarer days when the airport runs in north flow.
Why are takeoffs always heading south at SCL?: Santiago's prevailing surface winds are southerly, and aircraft take off and land into the wind, so the airport runs in south flow (toward the 17 runways) the large majority of the time. The flat western plain has no over-water or steep-approach options, so noise management relies on preferential-runway rules, the late-night switch to 17L, and the 65 dB residential limit. The 35 northbound configuration is used comparatively rarely.
Which Santiago neighborhoods are quietest for aircraft noise?: Communes east of the runways and away from the north-south flight tracks — Renca, Estación Central, Quinta Normal, Cerrillos — see only lateral or high-altitude overflight. The highest exposure is the southern departure corridor through Pudahuel, Maipú and Cerro Navia. Use the pin-drop map above to check any specific address.

Sources and further reading

Comodoro Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport runways — OurAirports
Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport — Wikipedia
Monitoreo Ruido AMB — Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC)
Sistema de Monitoreo de Ruido en Aeropuerto Arturo Merino Benítez — Dirección General de Aeronáutica Civil (DGAC)
Santiago, Chile — Temporary Runway Changes (night noise-abatement departure runway) — Ops Group
Área afectada por ruidos del aeropuerto de Santiago disminuye a la mitad en un año — Plataforma Urbana

Data updated 2026-10-17 — 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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Santiago Flight Path Noise Map – Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL)

Aircraft noise around Santiago in October 2026

Does Santiago 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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