Residents unhappy with flight path proposals

Over half of residents' comments to Edinburgh Airport's second consultation on its airspace change programme were negative.

The report on the consultation on flight path proposals was published today.

Residents raised concerns about a number of issues including noise, the process of the consultation, the impact on local communities and health.

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Edinburgh Airport blundered further as the freepost address in the FAQ section of the website used for responses was incorrect. It is unknown how many people were affected. Residents can resubmit their responses by July 31, more information here: http://www.edinburghairport.com/pages/airspace-change-programme.

Edinburgh Airport Chief Executive Gordon Dewar said mistakes had been made and they were “embarrassing” but “it did not impair the completeness of the consultation.”

Almost 4000 responses were received after 23 community drop-in sessions which were attended by more than 1000 people during the 14-week consultation.

Overall of the 3921 respondents, 52 per cent of the sentiment was negative, 28 per cent positive and 20 per cent neutral.

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The report will help to shape Edinburgh Airport’s flight change proposals and recommendations to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) later this summer.

A final decision by the CAA on the proposed flight paths is expected at the end of the year and if the routes are approved they could be in place by April 2018.

Chief Executive of Edinburgh Airport Gordon Dewar said:

“A change in Edinburgh’s airspace is much needed in order to follow the modernisation of all airspace across the UK, as well as building capacity to meet current and future demand.

“But it must be balanced and managed in a way that benefits Edinburgh and Scotland as a whole and minimises the impact on local communities.

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“That’s why the rich and informed conversations we’ve had have been so important – to inform, debate and scrutinise.

“We acknowledge that some mistakes have been made and they have been embarrassing for us, but we have learned from and rectified them.

“However, we are confident that they did not impair the overall completeness of the consultation; we have been open in identifying them and tenacious in our attempts to fix them.”

A link to the full report can be found here: https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/edinburghairport/files/2017/07/acp/2_ACP_second_consultation_report_18072017.pdf