Woken up again and again and again!

September had 59 flight movements at George Best Belfast City Airport after 9.30pm (late flights): 39 Late arrivals and 20 late departures.

The last EasyJet departure to Gatwick was late a record 18 times in the month. This flight is operated by an Airbus A320 aircraft which makes at least 10db more noise on departure than the turboprop aircraft used by Aer Lingus/Emerald. All of these flights are allowed to operate under the exceptional circumstances’ definition agreed between the Dept. for Infrastructure and the airport, a definition that differs from both the legal and dictionary definition of the word.

If a flight is late 18 times out of 30, it must be considered more exceptional if it operates on time.

These flights will not be reviewed by the DFI until December as the airport only has to report its late flights every 2 months, so the September/October lates will only be reported at the end of November and reviewed by the DFI officials sometime in December, when they will produce a lovely pie chart showing the late movements for the two-month period.

What action will DFI take? Probably none, or if they do maybe a letter to the airport asking them to “monitor” the EasyJet Gatwick, a little pointless 3-4 months after those living under the flightpath have been woken up by EasyJet, night after night in September. We can find no record of the DFI taking the airport to task for allowing late flights anytime in the recent past.

The agreement between the DFI and the airport does nothing to protect those living under or near the flightpath, it is not fit for purpose and limits the action that DFI officials can take in dealing with the late flight problem at George Best Belfast City Airport.

It is time the Northern Ireland Executive took action to protect the residents of Belfast and those living on the north Down coast from aircraft noise (rather that favouring the commercial interests of the airport) by amending this ineffective agreement.

If you agree, let your MLA know your opinion.