3rd runway would kill historic opportunity to improve noise climate for Heathrow residents
HACAN – (the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise) – has produced a short report that shows how, contrary to the claims made by Heathrow Airport on how quiet planes are getting, an increase in the number of aircraft using the airport will only result in more noise for those under flight paths. Any improvements that could be made by use of slightly less noisy planes will be negated by a 3rd runway due to the huge increase in the number of planes. A 3rd runway would allow over 700,000 flights each year, up from the current ceiling of 480,000. The way aircraft noise is measured, one Concorde followed by 3 hours and 58 minutes with no planes is said to be as disturbing as 4 hour’s worth of non-stop noise from Boeing 757s at a rate of one every 2 minutes. That is manifestly not the way people under flight paths experience the noise. It is expected that next week Heathrow will make its submission to the Airports Commission – and they are likely to say a 3rd runway would result in an overall reduction in noise for Londoners.
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Third Runway would kill historic opportunity to improve noise climate for Heathrow residents
8.7.2013 (HACAN – Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise)
A short report Heathrow in a noisy league of its own released today by campaign group HACAN claims that a third runway at Heathrow would kill off an historic opportunity to improve the noise climate for residents
The report argues that the combination of the quieter aircraft that are coming on-stream and improved operational practices, such a steeper approaches, provide a real chance to reduce noise. But it says that chance would be lost if a new runway is built as the huge increase in the number of planes would cancel out any improvements to the noise climate. A third runway would allow over 700,000 planes to use the airport each year, up from the current ceiling of 480,000.
The report comes out just a week before Heathrow Airport is expected to announce its favoured site for a third runway when it submits its evidence to the Airports Commission which has been set up by the Government to assess airport capacity in London and the South East.
The Commission released its consultation on noise at the end of last week. Link
HACAN Chair John Stewart said, “There is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to improve the noise climate at Heathrow. It would be snatched away if a third runway was built.”
The report highlights the fact that Heathrow is ‘in a noisy league of its own’ with 725,000 people affected by noise from the airport, that is, 28% of all people impacted by aircraft noise right across Europe. The report also calls on the Government to introduce a more meaningful way of measuring noise.
Report Heathrow in a noisy league of its own (7 pages)
Heathrow is expected to publish its evidence on 17th July. The Airports Commission will produce a short-list of schemes it wants to assess in more detail when it publishes its Interim report in December. Its final report will be published in summer 2015, two months after the next General Election.