PORTLAND – Officials at the Portland International Jetport are planning tests measuring airport noise, a constant irritant to residents in parts of Portland and South Portland.

The $250,000 tests will start next week, last 10 days and be paid for out of airport reserves.

Metal boxes with built-in microphones will be attached to telephone poles in a dozen locations in Portland, South Portland and Westbrook.

Jeff Monroe, Portland’s director of transportation, anticipates that noise levels will be down slightly from the last tests run in 1989.

“Overall, we think the situation has improved,” he said. “We hope to see exactly what the reality is.”

Monroe suspects that the introduction of quieter jets, combined with the reduced number of flights after Sept. 11, has lessened the noise problem.

Residents of Portland’s Stroudwater and Western Promenade neighborhoods, and people in parts of South Portland, have long complained particularly about late-arriving flights thundering over their homes.

Kathy Latendresse, who lives in South Portland, is skeptical that the tests will lead to a reduction in noise.

“I was on television 20 years ago complaining,” she said. “They’re not going to do anything about it.”

Jetport officials have been largely helpless to solve the problem, pointing out that overtaxed airports in Detroit, Cincinnati and Washington, D.C., among other cities, have caused flights into Portland to arrive, in some cases, well after 1 a.m.

This violates the city’s long-standing agreement with the Federal Aviation Administration that planes not take off or land between midnight and 5:45 a.m.

One solution is a quieter airplane. Federal regulations enacted two years ago require new aircraft be fitted with noise-reduction technology. Those planes are being introduced gradually and will eventually be the norm.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, there have been fewer flights, which should mean reduced noise. With fewer flights, there are fewer delays, limiting the number of late-arriving flights into Portland.

Still, the FAA is predicting that the number of people flying in the United States could approach 1 billion annually by 2008, up 50 percent from current levels.

Noise problems plague airports nationwide, but not in Bangor. The Bangor International Airport receives fewer than six complaints annually, said Rebecca Hupp, airport manager.

Jeff Schultes, manager of the Portland airport, said much has changed since noise levels were last measured there in 1989.

“This is an opportunity for a lot of people to sit down and talk about this,” Schultes said. “We want to be good neighbors. We really do.”