Edinburgh Airport flight path consultation to close

Flight areas being looked at in the consultation

Edinburgh Airport said it has received thousands of responses to its public consultation on changing flight paths.

The first phase closes at the end of Monday, a week later than planned after the airport was forced to apologise for losing almost 200 responses.

The airspace above Edinburgh Airport has not been modernised since the 1970s.

At the time it handled about one million passengers - it now handles more than 11 million.

Airport officials said it was delighted with the response it had had from members of the public and interested parties to the first phase of its modernisation consultation.

'Shocking incompetence'

It will now use the responses to help design new flight path options that should be set out by the end of the year.

However, some residents said they were already affected by noise pollution from changes in the flight paths and accused the airport of pushing ahead with airspace expansion without considering other ways to increase capacity.

The airport said it lost responses during a planned upgrade of the consultation website and extended the consultation period by a week.

Campaigners against the new flight path said it was "shocking incompetence".

Flight areas being looked at in the consultation