8:42am Thursday 21st February 2008
By David Jackman
FEWER people will be living under Stansted flightpaths and stacking areas under proposals unveiled today.
Instead of two holding areas to serve Luton and Stansted airports, presently over Royston and Sudbury, each airport would have its own, and Stansted an additional hold, but further north than at present.
So-called continuous descent approaches would be introduced for Stansted's easterly runway, where aircraft stay higher for longer, reducing fuel burn and noise.
Under the proposals, which are out for consultation, Stansted departures, particularly easterly departures, would also change significantly, meaning the Noise Preferential Routes (NPRs) which operate up to 4,000ft, would also be realigned.
Overall almost 8,000 fewer people (67 per cent) would be living under the revised NPRs.
Redrawing the route map also enables air traffic management company NATS to avoid as many towns and villages as possible.
Towns such as Ware and Hertford will see significantly fewer aircraft at low levels and the changes would also enable an improved approach to be introduced for easterly arrivals.
NATS director of operations Ian Hall said: "Just like bottlenecks on our roads, increased air traffic causes congestion in the airways meaning delay and extra fuel burn - and that has an impact on the environment.
"Redrawing the routes enables us to make them more efficient to reduce delay. It also gives us the opportunity to reroute them to avoid flying over as many towns and villages as possible, especially at lower levels.
"That means less noise for people living underneath. Overall we will reduce by some 20 per cent the number of people affected by noise from departing aircraft flying below 4,000ft."
Mr Hall added: "This region is currently over-flown by many hundreds of flights every day and that will not change under these proposals. More and more people want to fly and our job is to make sure they can do so safely and without delay.
"We also have to accommodate growth forecast under existing Government policy so now is the right time to overhaul the airspace fundamentally to ensure we maintain our high safety standards, reduce delays and minimise the effect on the environment." A dedicated website - nats.co.uk/TCNconsultation - includes a short DVD introducing to the changes and a postcode search facility so people to see the flight paths, and the heights of aircraft, over their area. There is also an online questionnaire.
Copies of the consultation document, along with the DVD and leaflets, are in main libraries and the DVD and leaflets are being sent to parish councils.
The consultation closes on May 22.
All feedback will be submitted to the Civil Aviation Authority which decides whether the proposed change can go ahead. If approved, the change would not become operational before spring 2009.
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