Heathrow braced for new night flights battle
and 6am during the six-month winter season and 3,250 in the summer months — about
16 a night.
and campaigners believe they will launch another attempt to pave the way for more
night flights from 2012, and a further increase between 6am and 7am.
That will be the fight."
in the autumn.
Documents released under freedom of information laws highlight the Department
for Transport’s concerns.
regime (possibly in autumn 2010) gets embroiled in other Heathrow consultations
around the same time, leading to the issues becoming blurred in people’s minds
and possibly hardening opposition to Heathrow expansion."
subject to strict limits set by the department, and this regime is updated every
six years after public consultation.
and will not change, the current night flight regime. It is only right that the
department ensures these two separate policies are not confused."
The Department for Transport has admitted that over 500,000 people live under
the night time flight path. People woken up by night flights can become very stressed
out. A ban is operationally possible. Research carried out by HACAN ClearSkies shows there is no good operational
reason why the current night flights can’t arrive at Heathrow during the day and
leave their countries of origin at a reasonable hour. It flies in the face of common sense for the Government to suggest that 16 night
flights are essential to the UK economy. It has produced no research to back this up. A ban on flights between 11.30pm
and 6am is entirely realistic.
7am. This is when most people are asleep. A night ban extended from 6am to 7am would
affect many more flights. But it would force the airlines and the airport to sharpen
up their operations. It would result in far fewer empty seats on day-time flights
and would force the authorities to consider the position of transfer passengers
– who currently account for a quarter of all passengers using Heathrow and who
contribute little to the overall economy.