The Government has ignored calls from communities and community groups to reduce the quota of night flights permitted at Gatwick.
At the time of the government review of night flights, roughly 50% of the permitted night quota in the winter was not utilised by Gatwick. Since the Government were deaf to calls to cut the existing number of flights at night, it would have at least provided some welcome reassurance to residents if the current c.50% over-capacity in winter had been pared back to say 5%, with the airport having to consult and seek permission for any expansion beyond that.
But instead the government have left residents entirely to the mercy of commercial forces at Gatwick.
The government did make some concessions on the noise quota (see column B of table below) – a complicated index which assigns points to different types of aircraft based on the levels of noise they generate, with the noisier ones using up the quota more quickly; This may help to a very limited extent to soften the blow of any increase in nightime aircraft movements (column A below) which occur as a result of the government’s decision not to reduce the number of aircraft movements permitted.
Government’s night flights regime
October 2017-2022:
|
A. Total number of aircraft permitted at night (2330 to 0600)over the season – ‘unchanged’ (‘Movement Limit’) |
B. Noise Points Quota Limit |
|
Gatwick |
||
| Winter (Oct – Mar) 2017/18 |
3250 |
2000 |
| Summer (Apr – Sept) 2018 |
11200 |
6200 |
| Winter 2018/19 – Winter 21/22 |
3250 |
1785 |
| Summer 2019 – Summer 22 |
11200 |
5150 |
Heathrow |
||
| Winter 2017/18 |
2550 |
4080 |
| Summer 2018 |
3250 |
5100 |
| Winter 2018/19 – Winter 21/22 |
2550 |
2415 |
| Summer 2019 – Summer 22 |
3250 |
2735 |
(taken from the Dept. for Transport decision July 2017)