27 January 2011
The Heathrow Airport campaign group, HACAN ClearSkies, commissioned the Dutch consultancy CE Delft to report on the economics of night flying at Heathrow Airport. The report, which was launched in the House of Commons on 27 January 2011, looks at the costs and benefits to the UK of a ban on night flights at Heathrow.
The report found that having no take-off or landings between 23:30 and 06:00 could have a maximum socio-economic benefit of about £860 million a year, over the period 2013-2023. A loss to the economy, estimated to be £35 million, would only be experienced in the unlikely event that all current night-time passengers stopped using Heathrow once a ban was in place.
CE Delft looked at three alternatives to the present night flight arrangements:
- all night flights and connections would be rescheduled to daytime operations;
- all night flights would be rescheduled to daytime operations but connections lost, leading to a decrease in the number of transfer passengers; and
- abandonment of all arriving and departing night flights.
The report concluded that a ban on night flights at Heathrow Airport is likely to be beneficial to the economy as the economic costs of the ban will be outweighed by the savings made by the reduced health costs of the sleep disturbance and stress caused by the noise of the night flights.
The Government’s current night flight regime for the controlled airports – Heathrow, Gatwick & Stansted – is in place until 31 October 2012, with the Government intending to consult on this regime during 2011.
http://www.hacan.org.uk/resources/reports/night.flight.final.report.pdf