At the airport we have two directions of operation, depending on the wind direction, as aircraft are required to take off and land into the wind for safety reasons. These are known as easterly operations and westerly operations and can change the aircraft tracks nearby specific areas.

During westerly operations, aircraft will depart towards the west, most of the time Luton’s wind comes from the west so this this happens on average 70% of the time. Whereas during easterly operations aircraft will depart to the east, which occurs on average 30% of the time. This means that on average, about seven out of ten take-offs head towards the west and only three out of ten take-offs go east.

The split in operating direction varies from year to year and month to month. The amount of time that the runway operates in one direction all depends on the weather, it could change daily but it is not uncommon to be operating in one direction for several weeks or months.

Noise Preferential Routes

 Aircraft taking off from some airports are required to follow specific flight paths called Noise Preferential Routes (NPRs), unless directed otherwise by air traffic control. Aircraft flying inside this corridor are considered to be flying on-track.

The NPRs at Luton are designed to avoid the overflight of built-up areas where possible. They set a path for the aircraft to take from the runway until they reach the main UK air traffic routes.

An aircraft’s ability to follow an exact route is affected by factors such as:

• navigational equipment
• the type and weight of aircraft
  weather conditions – particularly winds that may cause drifting when aircraft are turning

Each NPR is contained in a corridor extending 1.5 km either side of the NPR centre line and departing aircraft must remain within the NPR until reaching an altitude of 3,000ft during the day or 4,000ft at night (the release altitude). For our RNAV route (26 Match/Detling),  the corridor extends 1km either side of the centreline and the release altitude is 4,000ft day and night.

Once an aircraft reaches the NPR release altitude, a controller can instruct it to turn onto a more direct heading to its destination, which may take the aircraft outside the NPR corridor - this is called vectoring. There may be occasions where it is necessary for safety reasons (e.g. to avoid severe weather conditions) to vector aircraft off NPRs below the release altitude.

If you live within one of the Noise Preferential Routes, then you are likely to hear some noise when that particular flight path is being used.

Noise Abatement Departure Procedures Trial

At London Luton Airport, operators use a mix of Noise Abatement Departure Procedures. These are known as Noise Abatement Departure Procedure 1 (NADP1) and Noise Abatement Departure Procedure 2 (NADP2). These procedures are designed to distribute the noise from an aircraft in different ways.

In August and September 2022, we will be conducting a trial for departing aircraft. The participating operators in the trial will be asked to use each NADP procedure for a period of one-month. The noise, air quality and movement data will be compared and analysed towards the end of 2022. This will allow LLA to understand if there are noise and air quality benefits associated to certain NADP procedures.

More information on this trial can be found in the NADP Trial Project Plan document NADP Trial Project Plan document.