The aim of the current study is to compare the effectiveness and efficiency between two different procedures for analysing noise levels emitted by commercial aircrafts in the vicinity of airports. The measurements were made in sensitive points near the Arturo Merino Benítez International Airport (SCL), in Santiago of Chile. Both methodologies are applied over the time history of A-Weighted Sound Pressure Levels, but presenting different criteria for detecting aircraft noise events. In the first method, the identification of aircraft noise is carried out applying a moving average to the measured noise levels followed by threshold detection. The second method characterise noise events using the relationship among acoustic descriptors (Leq, Lmax and SEL) in one-minute periods. The results are compared with a high confidence method consisting in the correlation of the measured noise levels with the corresponding Flight Logs.