Theresa May has welcomed an announcement from the Department for Transport that restrictions on night flights at Heathrow Airport are to be extended until at least 2017. Restrictions were initially extended until October 2014, and the Department for Transport is now proposing to extend this for a further three years. The proposals will also see further restrictions placed on the noisiest types of aircraft, which will not be able to operate between 11pm and 7am.
The announcement came as part of the Government’s response to a consultation held earlier this year on night flights at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. Theresa responded to the consultation in order to oppose proposals that would have resulted in more night flights over the Maidenhead area.
The Government has concluded that it would not be sensible to make any significant changes to the current night flights regime before Sir Howard Davies’ independent Airports Commission has completed its work and the Government has had time to consider its recommendations. It therefore proposes to set a three-year regime to last until October 2017 which will retain the main features of the current regime, in particular the numbers of movements and noise quota permitted.
In addition, the Government is proposing to extend the operational ban on the noisiest types of aircraft to cover the period between 11pm and 7am. This is an extension to the current restrictions, which begin at 11:30pm. This change would prevent sleep disturbance caused by movements of these noisier aircraft types between 11 and 11:30pm.
Commenting, Theresa said: “I welcome the Government’s proposals to extend the current restrictions on night flights for a further three years. Many local residents would have been concerned about any plans to weaken the restrictions or increase the number of night flights. It is also good that there will be further restrictions on the noisiest aircraft, which should help to reduce the worst incidents of noise disturbance.”
