- Heathrow announces new noise charges to reduce unscheduled flights arriving and departing from 23:30 to 06:00
- Charges to operate between these hours will be five times greater than daytime noise charges and feed into a wider plan to reduce noise impacts on local communities
- The charges will aim to continue to reduce the noise disruption experienced by local communities
Heathrow has announced that this year, tougher charges will be applied to all flights that arrive and depart within the Night Quota Period from 23:30 to 06:00. The charges will disincentivise activity between the identified hours.
In a bid to crack down on the number of flights disrupting the communities closest to the airport, airlines that operate unscheduled flights within the night time-period will be faced with a bill five times greater than daytime charges. Actions are in response to community feedback on ways to improve noise impacts and complement Heathrow’s wider noise action plan.
This news follows Heathrow’s latest Fly Quiet and Green league table which saw SAS take the top spot following their efforts to improve operational performance and invest in greener and quieter A320neos. The next generation aircraft makes up seven per cent of flights from Heathrow and are used by eight of the airlines based at the airport including British Airways, SAS, Lufthansa, Air Malta, Iberia and TAP, who all feature in the top 20 of this quarter’s ‘Fly Quiet and Green’ league table. This was introduced in 2013 and encourages cleaner and quieter fleets at Heathrow.
Heathrow Community & Stakeholder Engagement Director, Rob Gray, said:
“It is really important that we work with our local communities and airlines to strictly manage aircraft noise at Heathrow. We continue to take vital steps to improve matters, including our new noise charges on all flights that arrive or depart the airport during the night.”
“Since the 1970s, despite a doubling of the number of flights, the population significantly affected by aircraft noise around Heathrow has reduced by around 90%. We believe the number of people impacted by aircraft noise will continue to reduce as we work towards a quieter, better future for Heathrow through the use of noise envelopes and our Noise Action Plan.”
-ENDS-
Notes to the editor:
On 1 January 2020 Heathrow’s Conditions of Use 2020 became applicable, implementing a new charging structure with an incentive to reduce unscheduled arriving and departing movements in the core night time period.
Airport Charges and the 2020 Conditions of Use were consulted on with the airline community from 1st August 2019 and then published on 31st October 2019. Details of this consultation and the published tariffs and Conditions of Use can be found here: www.heathrow.com/cou
