Campaigners vow to fight new Edinburgh Airport flight path plans

The new route trial ran until 28 October 2015

A campaign group against plans for a new Edinburgh Airport flight path has vowed to "fight it all the way".

It follows a report published by Edinburgh Airport with findings from last year's trial, which saw planes take off towards the Forth, passing over West Lothian.

The trial was held to find a way for planes to depart every minute at peak times instead of every two minutes.

Stop Edinburgh Airspace Trial said noise during the trial caused "misery".

The trial was stopped early after nearly 8,000 complaints from 567 individuals, although the report said 57% were not about trial flights but were about aircraft operating on flight paths that have existed since the runway was built in the mid-1970s.

The trial route, which was called Tutur, had been due to run until 24 December 2015.

However, it was halted on 28 October after starting on 25 June 2015.

No decision will be made on the new flight plan's future until the end of the year.

'Grossly unfair'

Helena Paul, Stop Edinburgh Airspace Trial (Seat) spokeswoman, said campaigners felt the report was "disingenuous" and made "no case for why a new flight path is required".

She said: "This amateurish report gives rise to serious concerns, they have found the route not to be flyable under all conditions, and their report seems to seriously underestimate the volume of complaints and the sense of outrage people felt, yet they seem determined to press ahead regardless of the misery they cause to thousands of people."

"It is grossly unfair to impose noise levels of over 80 decibels on people who bought their homes far from any flight paths and had no reason to worry about aircraft noise. The airport can grow without creating new flight paths and imposing noise on people. We will fight this all the way."

The report also claimed a large percentage of complaints came from the same people - with 40% of all complaints coming from five individuals.

An Edinburgh Airport spokesman said: "As we stated on Monday, the trial was a success on a technical level and we understand the feelings of some residents in surrounding communities."