Your next flight might land a lot smoother and quieter than you're used to as new rules that save fuel expand to more airports

• An Optimized Profile Descent is a smooth way of landing planes with their engines close to idle.  
• The landing style is less noisy, saves fuel, and reduces emissions. 
• The Federal Aviation Administration has implemented it in 64 airports across the US so far.

In most cases, planes are pretty noisy when they land. The pilots slowly reduce the altitude of the plane step by step, throttling and decreasing as necessary, in what's called a "staircase descent.