 NIGHT FLIGHTS |
SSE Response to DfT Night Flights Consultation (January 2014)
SSE Response to DfT Consultation - Night Flying Restrictions (April 2013)
The Night Flying Restrictions
Under Section 78 of the Civil Aviation Act 1982, the Government sets noise controls at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports. With regard to night noise, the controls include restrictions on the permitted number of flights and the noisiness of the aircraft. The controls are enacted in a statutory instrument known as the "Night Flying Restrictions at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted Airports" ('NFRs'), and these are normally reviewed every five or six years. The current rules came into effect in October 2006 and were intended to run for six years but were extended for a further two years, until October 2014. A summary of the current Night Flying Restrictions can be found here.
The NFRs are administered by the Department for Transport ('DfT') who, in January 2013, began a two-stage consultation process to seek views from the aviation industry and local communities to help it decide on the NFRs that should apply with effect from October 2014. The documents for the first stage of this consultation can be found here. The second stage of the consultation is expected to begin towards the end of 2013.
How limits are set
Night flights are regulated by the Government in two main ways:
1) A limit on the number of flights allowed between 11.30 pm and 6.00 am;
2) An annual noise quota which relates partly to the number of flights and partly to the noisiness of each plane, i.e. the noisier the plane, the fewer planes are allowed, and vice versa.
In addition there are restrictions on the use of the very noisiest aircraft types at night.
Our three main concerns
1) Stansted is presently allowed 12,000 night flights a year, more than twice as many as presently allowed at Heathrow (5,800 p.a.) and far more than either needed or justified. The 12,000 cap was set in 2006 at a time Stansted was still expanding rapidly and it was anticipated that more night flights would be needed. Stansted handled 8,283 night flights in 2012, well below the cap. We believe the Stansted cap should be reduced to 7,500 night flights p.a. from October 2014 and by 500 flights in each subsequent year to bring it down to 5,500 annual night flights by the end of the next 5-year control period (October 2019). In the longer term there should be a total ban on night flights, except in emergencies.
2) When setting limits on the number night flights to be permitted, the DfT defines 'night' as the 6½-hour period from 11.30pm to 6.00am, whereas the normal definition of night is the 8-hour period from 11.00pm to 7.00am. This means there are no restrictions on the number of aircraft that can take-off and land during the two 'shoulder' periods, from 11.00pm to 11.30pm and from 6.00am to 7.00am, the very times when most people are trying to get to sleep or before they wake up. This is a particular problem at Stansted because Ryanair and Easyjet seek to use their aircraft for as many hours as possible each day, with the result that these early morning and late evening 'shoulder' periods at Stansted are subject to vey intensive use. We believe that 'night' should mean night, i.e. the full 8 hours.
3) Aircraft are presently allowed to use reverse thrust when landing at Stansted at night. This is extremely noisy at the best of times and, in the case of Stansted, with its rural setting and low ambient levels of noise at night, the use of reverse thrust causes major disturbance. We believe there should be an immediate ban on aircraft using reverse thrust at night except in emergencies.
See also the Noise Matters page
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