Biggest-ever consultation on airspace change

The proposed changes are the first fundamental overhaul in several decades for this area of airspace and are designed to reduce delay whilst maintaining safety and improving environmental performance. The region is one of the most complex areas of airspace in the world, with routes in and out of major airports including Heathrow, Stansted, Luton and London City as well as smaller airports such as Southend and RAF Northolt. Ian Hall, NATS Director of Operations, said: All these airports have grown considerably in the past 20 years London City has grown from virtually nothing since the early 90s - and we have simply accommodated this growth within the existing airspace infrastructure. 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% the number of people affected by noise from departing aircraft flying below 4,000ft.

The four main objectives in the Terminal Control North (TCN) airspace change proposal (ACP) are to: reduce congestion over Brookmans Park in Hertfordshire caused by converging departure routes from Heathrow, Luton, London City and Northolt. relocate and separate the holding facilities for Luton and Stansted to accommodate their growth. The airports currently share two holds; under these proposals each would have a dedicated hold and Stansted an additional hold. introduce continuous descent approaches (CDA) where aircraft stay higher for longer, reducing fuel burn and noise, for Stansteds easterly runway. formalise arrival and departure routes for London City to reflect the growing number of jet aircraft using the airport, and to provide a new hold. NATS has divided the consultation region into five areas to make it easier for people to understand what effect, if any, it may have on them. These five areas are Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and North East Essex; Chilterns and Luton; East Hertfordshire and West Essex; West and North West London; East London and South East Essex. A dedicated website at nats.co.uk/TCNconsultation is available from today. It includes a short video providing an introduction to the changes and a postcode search facility which enables people to see the flight paths, and the heights of aircraft, over their area. An online questionnaire enables people to provide feedback. In addition, for people without internet access, copies of the consultation document, along with the DVD and leaflets, will be held in main libraries and the DVD and leaflets relevant to their area are being sent to parish councils. NATS is directly consulting more than 3,000 stakeholders including local MPs, county, district, borough and parish councils, airport consultative committees, environmental groups and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, business organisations, airlines, recreational aviation groups and other interested parties. Mr Hall said: This region is currently overflown 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. The consultation period 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.