I don't recommend these for noise cancelling unless you have a headphone amp and don't care if the people around you are also listening to what you are. They can easily be heard around you at louder volumes but if you don't care about that they are definitely capable of drowning out airplane noise. I'd recommend a pair of noise isolating earbuds in that price range such as the Bose in-ear ones. I think they were about 120 when I bought mine a year ago and they do a good job without jumping into full blown noise cancellation.