Quieter planes will let us boost Heathrow flights by 10%, claims business

 
P14 Airplane over houses from Heathrow
Getty Images
10 May 2013

A leading business group today called on ministers to increase flights at Heathrow, and dismissed concerns about noise pollution — claiming the impact of cars and trains was much worse.

London First argued that the environmental case had been exaggerated by the lobby against Heathrow expansion. It claimed quieter modern planes and alternative flightpaths would result in noise levels dropping 40 per cent over the next seven years — even if the number of flights at Heathrow were to go up 10 per cent.

London First called for a 10 per cent increase in flights— the equivalent of 50,000 more each year — by lifting restrictions on runway use. It wants to see a “mixed mode” system — which would allow both runways to be used all day for take-off and landing, rather than the current practise of alternating runway use to give local people relief from noise.

The recommendations have been submitted to the Davies Commission, which is examining the case for expanding airport capacity. The commission has called for proposed “quick-fix” solutions — short of building new runways — before it publishes its main report in May 2015.

Baroness Valentine, chief executive of London First, said: “We face fierce global competition from rivals who are increasing their air links to new and established markets.

“In the absence of a long-term plan for new runway capacity, we have no choice but to make the assets we have work more intensively. We think the cap on flights at Heathrow can be lifted, and residents protected from noise, and Gatwick and Stansted deregulated to let London’s competitive market flourish, extending choice and services.”

But Ravi Govindia, leader of Wandsworth council and spokesman for the 2M group, which opposes Heathrow expansion, said London First had “hugely understated” the impact of aircraft noise. He added: “It shows no appreciation of what it’s like to live directly beneath a flightpath. The only respite these communities receive is when the airport switches runways at 3pm.

“To use both in tandem would remove this vital protection and be a major blow to quality of life. The noise aggregate figures London First is using are 30 years out of date, and grossly underestimate the number of people affected by Heathrow flights.”

Daniel Moylan, the Mayor of London’s advisor on aviation, said: “Millions of Londoners are already affected by the very serious noise and air quality impacts of Heathrow, which is the noisiest airport in Europe and operating at 99 per cent of capacity.

"It is quite clear that London and the UK now need a proper hub airport that will have the flexibility it needs to operate unhindered whatever the circumstances. And there are clear environmental benefits from meeting the increasing demand for aviation at a site located to the east of London, rather than the madness of trying to shoehorn more flights into an airport that is already constrained by location, straining at the seams and in the heart of our western suburbs.”

Leader of Wandsworth Council Cllr Ravi Govindia said: “London First has hugely understated the impact aircraft noise has on peoples’ lives and shows no appreciation of what it’s like to live directly beneath a flightpath.

"The only respite these communities receive is when the airport switches runways at 3pm. To use both in tandem would remove this vital protection and would be a major blow to quality of life.

“The noise aggregate figures London First is using are 30 years out of date and grossly underestimate the number of people affected by Heathrow flights. If we use World Heath Organisation guidelines on noise pollution the number affected is close to one million.

“Another key mistake is to assume that more runway capacity will bring better connections between London and emerging markets. In practice the airlines will use extra runway slots to fly to the most profitable routes, not risky new services to places like China. When British Airways bought up BMI's runway slots they used their increased capacity to fly more services to Alicante.”

An analysis of existing noise data for London First, by consultancy Arup, calimed those people affected by Heathrow noise — using a benchmark of 57 decibels — had fallen from two million to 250,000 in the past three decades, during which time the number of flights had increased by 70 per cent. Using an upper limit of 70 decibels, only 10,000 people were affected.

It claimed two million Londoners are affected by similar levels of road traffic noise and 300,000 by trains.

The new Boeing 787 is 40 per cent quieter than the 747, the report said.

It called on the Government to appoint a noise regulator to publish live data from aircraft and penalise airlines breaking the limits.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in