Respite from noise: we asked the airport and this is what they said

In 2018, we pressed the Airport to take a serious look into options for respite from noise especially to the West where takeoffs happen for 70% of the year.

Consultants were commissioned to produce a report on options which they presented to the Airport in 2019. We haven't been allowed to see it but we understand that there are commercial reasons why it remains confidential. Here is a pdf of the consultant's presentation.

The Airport did a presentation at the same time explaining why a westerly respite route was off the agenda, you can see a pdf of it here.

Neither of these tells us very much or gives us much useful information. Basically, the answer was/is "No".

However, we recently presented our analysis of noise complaints which shows that a huge majority of complaints is in the early morning (woken up by the noise) and most of those report being stressed and angry. Woken by a loud noise plus anxiety and anger amount to a significant health risk red flag. We hope the Airport might be having a rethink, especially in light of its expansion plans which will increase noise.