NATS encourages local feedback with just four weeks remaining of consultation

• NATS encouraging residents to give feedback with only four weeks remaining to submit views
• The consultation is on proposed changes to the use of existing departure routes from Stansted Airport to the east and south
• No new routes are being proposed and use of other routes remains unchanged

NATS is urging people living under Stansted Airport’s easterly and southerly departure routes to give their feedback on proposed changes. There are now only four weeks to go until the consultation closes on Monday 8 September, following its launch on 16 June.

The proposal concerns a change to the use of the existing routes for departures to the east and south of Stansted Airport. No new routes are proposed, only different usage of the existing routes.

This proposal aims to direct the majority of daytime flights from Stansted that currently fly on a route heading south from the airport, onto the existing route heading to the east. This is in order to avoid Heathrow traffic congestion, which currently keeps Stansted’s southbound aircraft low, often below 7,000ft until the Thames Estuary and sometimes well into Kent.

Switching daytime traffic from the south to the east departure route will allow the flights to climb continuously, reducing CO₂ emissions and overall noise. It will eliminate regular daytime departures for a large area to the south of the airport, but in doing so would double the number of flights on the existing route to the east.

Whilst the driver for change is around network performance, there are local efficiency benefits too and the consultation is being supported by Stansted Airport.

Although the consultation is primarily through the airport’s consultative committee, NATS is urging the public to have their say and respond via www.nats.aero/lampstansted.

Paul Healey, NATS General Manager at Stansted Airport, said: “Feedback has suggested that flight path changes have already been implemented and that there is an already significant increase in the volume of aircraft. We would like to assert that this is not the case and reiterate that the proposed changes cannot be made without following the proper process, of which this consultation is part.

“We therefore continue to encourage those living under the departure routes and in the surrounding areas, as well as local organisations and associations, to look at the documentation online and respond to this consultation on the airspace above them.”