Leeds Bradford Airport boss to meet local people over plans to increase night flights

People concerned by the prospect of increased night-time flights at Leeds Bradford Airport will face its CEO tonight at a sold-out public meeting.

Campaigners with the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) have accused airport bosses of trying to effectively ditch a cap on night-time flights it was found to have broken last summer.

The airport's CEO, Vincent Hodder, will speak with residents at Cookridge Methodist Church. Campaigners with GALBA will meet outside.

The Yeadon-based airport has applied to Leeds City Council for permission to run what campaigners have described as an "unlimited" number of supposedly quieter planes to take off and land between 11pm and 7am.

Conditions imposed on LBA in 2007 restrict the number of flights between these hours to limit the noise impact on residential neighbours.

Earlier this year, that cap was found to have been breached by nearly 750 flights during the summer season of 2022.

The airport said the applications, known as certificates of lawful development or CLEUDs, had been put forward to try to "clarify" those rules.

And Mr Hodder has described suggestion of unlimited flights as "misleading".

In an open letter he said: "Some of the statements we have seen suggest that the granting of these CLEUD applications would lead to a huge increase in the number of night flights. This is absolutely not the case.

"Contrary to speculation, LBA is not seeking to change the planning conditions that apply to the airport.

"The CLEUD applications will provide a determination and clarify how the existing planning permission, written nearly 30 years ago, should operate.

"This will allow LBA to ensure that it remains compliant with the conditions in a complicated and changing landscape."

GALBA has responded to LBA's applications and said the airport is seeking "a reinterpretation of the existing rules" that limit night-time flying.

It added: "The key point about LBA’s CLEUD application is that it seeks to ‘clarify’ the existing night flight restrictions in such a way that it would remove certain types of planes and all late arrivals up to 1am from the cap on night time flying.

"That would clearly permit a major rise in night-time flying."

It said the individual CLEUDs "add up to a new night-time noise regime" that would be "far more negatively impactful" than a previous planning application made three years ago.

The group added: "It appears it would permit the noisiest use of LBA ever and one of the most relaxed regulations in the country at a commercial airport."

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