Airport accused of breaching night flight limits

Leeds Bradford Airport was found to have breached a cap on the number of summertime night flights in both 2022 and 2023 by Leeds City Council

Campaigners have claimed that Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) has breached a cap limiting summertime night flights for the third year running.

Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) said the site had again broken a rule restricting it to running 2,920 flights between the hours of 23:00 BST and 07:00 BST between 31 March and 27 October this year.

LBA was previously found to have breached its summer night flights limit in 2022 and 2023, although no further action was taken on the latter occasion.

Responding to GALBA's claims, the airport insisted it had abided by "our interpretation of the planning conditions" it was bound by.

GALBA said its data suggested the airport had run 820 more flights than permitted during the British Summertime (BST) period, when the cap is in place.

The campaign group said it had made a formal complaint to Leeds City Council about the alleged breach.

In June 2023, LBA apologised after an investigation found it had exceeded its night flights cap, which is in place to protect the airport's neighbours, by 747 flights.

On that occasion, chief executive officer Vincent Hodder said that "actions have been taken quickly to address the problems that led to this error", which resulted in the council issuing the airport a breach of condition notice.

This meant the site was at risk of being prosecuted if it failed to stick to the rules in future.

LBA said it had abided by its "interpretation of the planning conditions"

Earlier this year, however, the airport was found to have exceeded the limit again, by a margin of 577, during the 2023 BST period. The council took no further action, saying the "public interest test" to pursue prosecution had not been met.

However, the council did reject the airport's request for permission to run more flights at night, a ruling the airport has appealed against.

GALBA chair Nick Hodgkinson said: “These rules exist to protect public health but LBA’s bosses clearly don't care about rules, or the airport’s neighbours.

"It would make a mockery of Leeds City Council to let LBA get away with flouting the rules year after year after year.

"GALBA has given the council independent, industry standard data to prove LBA’s unlawful activity, so there’s no excuse for doing nothing again this year."

'Complex technical information'

In response to GALBA's claims, a spokesperson for the airport said it had been "consistent that we have and will continue to operate in accordance with our interpretation of the planning conditions" until the conclusion of its appeal against the council's decision earlier this year.

LBA added: "As we have previously stated, the purpose of the existing planning consent when granted was to allow night flights but minimise the potential for increased noise of those flights on local communities.

"Our interpretation of the conditions stays true to this purpose and would encourage airlines to deploy the latest generation of aircraft which are quieter and more efficient.”

A spokesperson for the council said: “Following the end of British Summer Time, we will shortly receive Leeds Bradford Airport’s flight data for the final weeks of the 2024 summer season.

“This complex technical information will require rigorous analysis by council officers before the airport’s night flight numbers for the summer season as a whole can be calculated.

“The monitoring process therefore remains live and ongoing and, as such, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.

Listen to highlights from West Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North or tell us a story you think we should be covering here.