Airport seeks night flight deal as demand grows

Consultants told the council the airport could not "keep pace"

Birmingham Airport has applied for permission to change its agreement on night flights, as it aims to handle 18m passengers a year by 2033.

Its existing night-flying policy, which allows 5% of take-offs and landings to take place at night, was agreed in 2009.

Since then, passenger numbers have grown, but aircraft are larger, cleaner and quieter and are used differently, the airport said.

The hub, which currently handles 13m passengers a year, is seeking approval from Solihull Council to allow an average of 7.3% of flights to arrive or leave between 23:30 and 06:00.

It said to provide passengers with the destinations and schedules they want, the airlines needed to operate each aircraft as much as possible, meaning earlier starts and/or later finishes each day.

Future indicative caps were 7,227 (7.6%) night flights in 2024-25, 7,528 (7.3%) in 2025-26 (7.3%) and 7,600 (7%) in 2026-27.

An airport spokeswoman said that it was not breaching the current limit of 5,171.

Low-cost carriers

Figures from the airport said it was seeing 40% more passengers than in 2007.

Documents from airport consultants McLoughlin Planning said: “This has been in part down to the rise of low-cost carriers using the airport and changes in their operating patterns.

“Those changes see a much more intensive use of the aircraft over a longer operating day, meaning earlier starts and later finishes.

"Birmingham Airport Limited cannot keep pace with the changing circumstances at the airport in terms of operations and the types of aircraft and their associated movements.”

Aviation consultants for the airport, York Aviation, said: “There is, in practice, a need to revise upwards the allowance for the number of permitted night movements each year.”

Consultation runs until 24 October.