On February 24th 2022 we made changes to our arrival routes into LLA. This airspace change was known as Airspace Deployment 6 (AD6). This airspace change was a co-sponsored proposal from both NATS and London Luton Airport. The aim of this airspace change was to simplify arrival routes for flights into London Luton Airport and separate them from Stansted’s at a much higher altitude, ensuring continued safety. Prior to this, LLA and Stansted shared arrival holds and routes, which was unique for two airports of this size.
Following an extensive public consultation that ran from October 2020 to February 2021, we received more than 2,400 responses which helped inform the final design. This included minimal changes to previous flight paths below 5,000ft with greater dispersion of flights above 5,000ft; adjusting the location and orientation of the new holding area near the A1-A14 junction; and raising the lowest standard altitude of the hold by 1,000ft to reduce potential noise impacts. The Civil Aviation Authority, the regulators of the airspace, approved the airspace change proposal in November 2021. They will undertake a post-implementation review using 12 months of real flight performance data. This data is collected from 1st June 2022 - 31st May 2023.
More information about this change can be found
here.
LLA are in the process of working with all other London airports to re-design the airspace. This airspace change is known as Future Airspace Implementation South (FASI-S). As part of the process all airports have to work with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and follow the CAP1616 process. Our progress of this can be seen on the airspace change portal.
All jet aircraft leaving the airport follow flightpaths known as Noise Preferential Routes up to an altitude of 3,000ft during the day or 4,000ft at night. However aircraft using our MATCH departure route have to be above an altitude of 4,000ft 24 hours a day. Aircraft can be expected to overfly any location beneath these corridors on departure. Once this altitude has been reached, Air Traffic Control may vector aircraft towards their final destination integrating LLA flights with other air traffic in the area at the time. Therefore, on occasions, people not beneath the NPR corridor may experience direct aircraft activity overhead. These aircraft will generally be above 4,000ft.
We encourage aircraft to remain as close to the centre of the corridor as possible. However, it’s important to remember that flying an aircraft is not like driving a train along a railway track and there will always be some dispersion of tracks across any Noise Preferential Route corridor. This will be due to any number of meteorological conditions, including wind speed and direction, aircraft performance characteristics or tolerances in navigational equipment.
LLA holds a 24 hour licence to operate and there is no ban on night flights. This is the same as all London airports including those known as 'designated' airports that have noise conditions set by Government.
However we are conscious of the impact that night flights can have on the local community and we have very few movements at night. We endeavour to mitigate this impact by encouraging airline operators to use quieter aircraft through a stringent penalty system, which fines those aircraft that exceed stipulated noise limits on departure.
Our current night noise violation limit of 79dB(A) is now lower than any other UK airport, which is set by us as the operators of LLA. In addition, we prohibit the operation of older generation jets at night and our landing charges offer incentives for airlines to operate during daytime hours. These measures are designed to help encourage airlines to operate modern, quieter generation aircraft. This forms part of our commitment to help minimise disturbance for our neighbours whilst balancing the environmental impact and the economic benefit of a successful airport.
All details of your complaint will be logged and investigated, following our most recent complaints policy which was last updated on July 1st 2022. This information is analysed to identify trends in specific aircraft noise disturbance and consequently helps the airport to minimise the impact of its operations. This data is published in the
Quarterly Monitoring Reports presented to the London Luton Airport
Most recently since the COVID-19 pandemic the aviation industry has recovered quicker than expected. For the past 2 years aircraft movements have been significantly lower than we have ever seen before. Therefore this is why you may be experiencing more noise disturbances because of the fast paced recovery. There is also an increase in flights during the summer compared to the winter due to seasonal demand. You can see our actual aircraft movements and passenger numbers in our
Quarterly Monitoring Reports.
Regrettably, it’s not possible to vary the path of arriving aircraft to avoid specific locations upon final approach. Current technology and safety requirements dictate ‘straight in’ approaches along a path which is essentially a 3-degree slope along the extended centreline of the runway and therefore entirely dependent on its orientation.
Flight patterns will vary depending on the direction of runway usage, either easterly operations or westerly operations. This is dictated by Air Traffic Control based on wind speed plus direction at ground level and at altitude.
Some aircraft that operate will take off and land at LLA, these flights are usually following off-airways routes and held lower than other aircraft in the airspace. There are two main reasons for flights which both arrive and depart from Luton. One reason is a training flight and the other is a maintenance flight, for example if an aircraft has not been flown for a period of time - the aircraft must conduct a flight within a specific time frame to keep its certification. These types of flights are only conducted during the daytime period. Both types of flights are very safe and a standard practice.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for in the questions and answers above, or would like to make a noise complaint, please contact us using the details below. A member of our team will be happy to help.
Email us: [email protected]
The easiest and quickest way to log a complaint is through Travis
Ring our automated 24 hour telephone line: +44 (0)1582 395382