9 Of The Best Noise-Cancelling Headphones & Earbuds For Frequent Flyers

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

There's no denying the statistics that say flying is safer than driving, but soaring over the land or ocean does seem more stressful than taking a long drive. You may be less likely to actually reach your destination safely in a car, but you're also more likely to get annoyed and maybe even panicked in a plane.

After all, planes are cramped, almost always filled to capacity, and oh, so noisy. Crying babies and the constant drone of the engines have always been part of the experience, and now even turbulence is getting worse. Luckily, a good set of active noise-cancelling (ANC) headphones or buds can help you drown out all those distractions during your trip.

Noise-cancelling headphones work by generating destructive anti-noise, based on a sampling of the ambient sounds via microphones on the outside of your headphones. Even when there's nothing playing, ANC headphones envelop you in a bubble of peaceful quiet. However, they're not all equally good at handling the levels and types of noise you'll encounter on a flight. That's why we've picked out some great sets that aren't just good headphones in their own right, but also promise to perform well on a flight compared to the competition in the same price bracket. So put your trays in the upright position and buckle your seatbelts, because it's time to enjoy the sound of silence.

Sony has developed a reputation for having some of the best ANC technology in the business. The WH-X1000XM4 is still my all-round daily driver, and the only other headphones I own that have similar ANC performance are my Apple AirPods Max. The WH-1000XM6 is the latest in this line, and it addresses some of the criticisms leveled at the XM5s. Above all, the XM6 goes back to being compact, foldable headphones, which was one of the primary reasons people like me held onto the XM4, skipping the larger, bulkier XM5. Compactness is, after all, paramount for headphones that are meant to travel with you.

The headline feature here, though, is the quality of Sony's algorithm when it comes to removing noise. These days, even the most basic ANC headphones can deal effectively with steady droning sounds or predictable ambient noise. The real flex for Sony is the ability to deal with noise sources like human speech or sudden, unexpected sounds. The WH-1000HXM6 uses 12 microphones in total, processed with seven times the computational power of the XM5, to offer what reviewers almost universally consider the best ANC performance in the world.

So if total silence is your goal and your budget allows for it (they sell for $458 on Amazon), these are the headphones to buy. However, the XM6 performs well in areas beyond just noise-cancelling, too. It offers flagship headphone sound quality, thirty hours of battery life, and quick-charging to get three hours of playback in just three minutes. It's the gold standard in this lineup.

Both the original Bose QuietComfort Ultra and the QuietComfort Ultra (2nd Gen) come very close to Sony's XM6 standard when it comes to ANC performance. By all accounts, the Bose offers a similar quality of noise suppression, but it's not as fast as the Sony XM6 at responding to changing noises. All those mics and extra CPU power the Sony uses serve a purpose after all.

However, just because these are only the second-best ANC headphones money can buy, that doesn't mean they lose in every category. As the name suggests, reviewers have found Bose's flagship ANC cans to be more comfortable. That might not matter on a two-hour flight, but if you're going on a long-haul trip in a plane, train, or automobile, then even a small difference in comfort becomes amplified as the hours roll on.

Speaking of the hours, this second-gen QuietComfort Ultra increases battery life with ANC on from 24 hours to 30, equaling the Sony XM6. As an added bonus, you can listen to lossless digital music using a USB-C cable and a supported source. This is something the XM6 cannot do, and it removes battery life from the equation. If you had your MacBook with you on the flight, you could watch movies, play games, or listen to downloaded lossless music for as long as the laptop battery lasts. As our M5 MacBook Air review points out, that should be a good, long time.

We've looked at the cream of the crop insofar as ANC headphones go already, but the JBL Tour One M3 Smart Tx is the first pair of headphones on the list marketed specifically for air travel, and just travel in general. So, apart from its excellent ANC performance, JBL has equipped these headphones with a few features that make them superlative travel companions.

Most of that is in the Smart Tx part of the name, because these come with a little transmitter that uses the revolutionary Bluetooth Auracast feature. This allows anyone with an Auracast-capable headset to tune in to the audio from the transmitter. You can plug in an audio source, such as the in-flight entertainment system, and then use your headphones to listen in, but also share that same audio with someone else. Auracast is still pretty rare though, so you'll probably have to buy that second set specifically for this purpose. The transmitter also acts as a controller, with its small touch screen, and it lets you keep that wireless convenience, even with wired audio sources.

The claimed battery life is only 18 hours, but that should be long enough for just about any flight you might want to take short of your next trip to Mars. This headset is also packed with features such as high-resolution audio over USB-C and spatial audio with head tracking. But that all-important sound quality is also top-tier, according to professional reviewers. It does, unfortunately, look a little cheaper than it is ($449.95 on Amazon).

Sennheiser has a tremendous reputation in the world of wired headphones. Certainly, my first "real" set of headphones was a pair of HD202s just out of high school, a legendary set of budget cans that I held onto until I got a real job after college. Unfortunately, Sennheiser's transition to wireless headphones has been a little bumpy. Bluetooth connectivity and battery drain are two common problems with Sennheiser headphones, but none of these issues seem to affect the Sennheiser Momentum 5 to any great degree.

Indeed, professional reviewers are impressed with its 50-plus-hour battery life, which is great for travel, and it lives up to Sennheiser's reputation for audio reproduction. Of course, with Sennheiser, the actual listening experience is the one thing you can always count on.

If you like the particular sonic character of the brand's headphones, there is no substitute for the Momentum 5 if you need an ANC option. They are also reportedly quite comfortable, so that's another plus.  On the nitpicking side of the checklist, these aren't quite as foldable as the Sony option, so they end up being bulkier when you pack them. Another notable issue is that, true to Sennheiser's style, these don't really look like luxury headphones, if you care about such things. But Sennheiser has never been about flash, and that also reflects in the price. At $400, the Momentum 5 is nearly $60 less expensive than the Sony XM6, but offers much longer battery life. To top it off, that battery is user-replaceable.

If you spend too much time in the world of headphones that hover around that $500 mark, it's easy to forget that there are plenty of options out there at a fraction of the price that sound excellent in their own right. However, ANC technology started out as an expensive feature, so it's only recently that it's become more common to find it in budget headphones.

Good ANC is even less common, but then 1MORE is one of those underrated audio brands that has built its entire identity around products that punch way above their price tag. The 1MORE SonoFlow Pro HQ51 can be yours for under $100, which might immediately raise some red flags, but professional reviewers rate it highly, not only for its price, but on its own merit.

This is a pair of headphones that has mastered the art of being good enough. It sounds perfectly fine, and you'll enjoy your movies and music without being distracted by poor audio quality. Its ANC, which is why we're here, is good enough to cancel out the droning of plane engines. It's not going to match Sony's offering at five times the price, but ANC that works as expected is infinitely better than no ANC at all. Battery life is far more than good enough. It's exceptional. With ANC turned on, you're looking at 65 hours. Nothing we've seen so far comes close. The one real downside is the slightly flimsy build quality, but it has to make concessions somewhere at this price point.

This is the point where we move from big, over-ear travel headphones to that super-popular product category of in-ear wireless buds. Kicking things off, we have the Bose QuietComfort Ultra Earbuds (2nd Gen). From the over-ear Bose headphones we've already seen, we know the company has excellent ANC, but does that shrink down to tiny buds?

The answer is a resounding yes, with expert reviewers calling the noise-reduction capabilities of these buds excellent and, at this price ($299 on Amazon), they should be! It's safe to consider these the top of the pile when it comes to ANC in bud form, but the other major selling point here is comfort, which is just as important with earbuds as it is with over-ears. I'm one of those people who can't tolerate buds for long, so anything to make them less irritating to my ears is a blessing. On that front, both the first and second generation of these buds are known for their comfort. Again, it's why they put it in the name.

On the sound quality front, it's all good, as well. If Bose doesn't know how to make a good driver, no one does. Battery life for the buds alone is only around six hours, but you get 24 hours of total life if you factor in the charging case, which can now also charge wirelessly. That case is, however, a little bulky compared to the competition. If your phone isn't from Apple or Samsung, this is the set of buds to get.

Apple famously removed the headphone jack from its phones, but luckily had a product called AirPods that would solve the problem it had just created. The AirPods would go on to be one of the most successful Apple products in history. The original AirPods were, however, open-ear models that didn't form a seal, so ANC wouldn't make sense. Then we got the AirPods Pro, with sealed tips and ANC, and they were brilliant.

This third iteration of the AirPods Pro sports truly excellent ANC and is a big step up from the second Pro version. As with the previous AirPods Pro models, these are tuned to appeal to pop music lovers, but you can adjust that bass-heavy experience to taste. Of course, to access that software you need an iOS device, and that's the elephant in the room. These buds will work with any Bluetooth device, but you lose access to Apple-specific features like spatial audio and live translation if you're not using one of the company's gadgets.

It's lucky, then, that these are some of the best ANC buds money can buy, because if you own an iPhone, iPad, MacBook, or Apple TV, these would be the buds you need to unlock the ecosystem benefits. Also, Apple has some of the best transparency technology in the business. It really does sound like you've taken the headphones off, but you'll still get protection from loud noises. With eight hours of ANC-on play time, AirPods Pro 3 are also the battery-life leaders among the premium buds here. If you're team Apple, buy them. Everyone else, move along.

You're probably sensing a pattern here, but if you have a Samsung phone, you should probably buy the Samsung Galaxy Buds4 Pro, because there's some strong synergy at play. I'm still rocking the Buds2 Pro with my S25 Ultra, and the experience is always seamless. So there can be real merit to combining products from the same brand. However, if you really like the Samsung buds, there's no reason not to use them with a non-Samsung modern Android phone. As long as it's compatible with the Samsung Galaxy Wearable app, you can still access all of the features and settings.

As for the Buds4 Pro, they're more of a mixed bag compared to the AirPods Pro 3. Reviewers say they sound fantastic, and considering that my Buds2 Pro already sound better than just about any earbuds I've ever personally used, that makes me want to upgrade. They're slick-looking, too, although the design now resembles AirPods much more than in the past.

The ANC is top-tier and deserves to be put on the same pedestal as the Bose and Apple offerings, but battery life is mediocre at around six hours with ANC on before you have to pop them back into the case. That is, however, on par with the Bose buds. Not the best for longer flights, but as long as you aren't going to be on the plane for longer than six hours, these buds are an excellent choice.

Just like the 1MORE headphones we looked at earlier, the EarFun Air Pro 4+ is a sub-$100 option that features ANC. These have made some waves among reviewers, and the overall view seems to be that if you're on a budget, they're the buds to get. However, let's put it front and center that the ANC is pretty mediocre, as you might expect for this price.

But, again, any functional ANC is better than not having ANC. These EarFuns will cut out the drone of a plane's many noises and increase your aural comfort while flying. The ANC performance is perfectly average, and testers say it reduces noise by about 80%. There are some settings you can tweak to change how ANC works on these buds, so you could probably get something that better suits your ear with some elbow grease.

On every other front, these represent incredible value for money. High-resolution audio and aptX Lossless are present and correct. It has support for LDAC, LC3, and LE codes, and the claimed battery life with ANC on is around eight hours, though some testers have found it to be closer to six. That puts it in the same league as the premium buds. Overall, the Air Pro 4+ is a great choice if you need to equip a whole family with ANC buds before a trip, and you can probably get them all for just a little more than the cost of one set of premium buds.

No one likes to be stuffed in a plane. Even the people in first class would usually rather be at their destination than traveling there. Thankfully, technology exists to make it more bearable, with active noise-cancelling standing high on the list. That doesn't mean you should buy just any old ANC headset, though.

To make it onto this list, these headphones had to meet certain criteria. First, they needed a 4-star (out of five) or better average user rating on Amazon, and second, the professional reviews from audio experts had to meet or exceed that same standard. As for the quality of the ANC, it was a bonus if it was exceptional, but budget models with acceptable ANC are important to put this technology within reach of all travelers.

While we're looking for headphones that have features that make them well-suited for air travel, it was also important that they be products you'd still want to use when your trip is over. So they also had to be solid headphones in general. That means good sound quality, cool smart features, and issues like durability mattered. The end result is that we'd clear any of these headphones for takeoff, and if you're in a hurry, picking them up at the airport is a safe bet. If you get them from the duty-free store, you might even get a decent deal.