Forum Topic

Anyone else disturbed by increased early morning Heathrow arrivals?

Now the weather has let Westerly operations resume, I have been woken at 4.30 am by a steady stream of noisy jets screaming past.Have the powers that be increased the number of night flights with no reference to us poor residents? Personally, I believe flights should be banned before 7am.Here are the early arrivals on Friday as an example, and we Brentford residents hear everyone:Fri 29 January 201004:50    BA012     SINGAPORE     LANDED 0439    Terminal three04:50    BA026     HONG KONG     LANDED 0434    Terminal five04:50    IB7571     SINGAPORE     LANDED 0439    Terminal three04:50    QF3345     SINGAPORE     LANDED 0439    Terminal three04:50    VS201     SYDNEY VIA HONG KONG     LANDED 0448    Terminal three05:00    BA032     HONG KONG     LANDED 0441    Terminal five05:00    BA074     LAGOS     LANDED 0444    Terminal five05:00    CX251     HONG KONG     LANDED 0436    Terminal three05:05    BA016     SYDNEY VIA SINGAPORE     LANDED 0514    Terminal three05:05    QF319     SYDNEY VIA SINGAPORE     LANDED 0514    Terminal three05:15    AA6446     JOHANNESBURG     LANDED 0517    Terminal five05:15    BA056     JOHANNESBURG     LANDED 0517    Terminal five05:20    AA6654     NAIROBI     EXPECTED 0528    Terminal five05:20    BA064     NAIROBI     EXPECTED 0528    Terminal five05:20    IB7589     NAIROBI     EXPECTED 0528    Terminal five05:20    SV113     JEDDAH     EXPECTED 0531    Terminal three05:25    BA212     BOSTON     LANDED 0521    Terminal five05:25    BA7309     MELBOURNE VIA SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0525    Terminal three05:25    GA9942     KUALA LUMPUR     EXPECTED 0534    Terminal four05:25    MH002     KUALA LUMPUR     EXPECTED 0534    Terminal four05:25    QF009     MELBOURNE VIA SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0525    Terminal three05:45    KQ102     NAIROBI     EXPECTED 0540    Terminal four05:45    SQ322     SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0535    Terminal three05:45    VS7322     SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0535    Terminal three05:50    BA216     WASHINGTON     EXPECTED 0609    Terminal five05:55    AA108     BOSTON     EXPECTED 0605    Terminal three05:55    AY5960     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0618    Terminal three05:55    BA010     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0618    Terminal three05:55    BD774     JEDDAH VIA RIYADH     EXPECTED 0614    Terminal one05:55    IB7619     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0618    Terminal three05:55    QF301     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0618    Terminal three05:55    UA918     WASHINGTON     EXPECTED 0602    Terminal one06:20    AA6416     DUBAI     EXPECTED 0608    Terminal five06:20    AC6123     BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0601    Terminal three06:20    BA106     DUBAI     EXPECTED 0608    Terminal five06:20    BA206     MIAMI     EXPECTED 0715    Terminal five06:20    BA7371     SYDNEY VIA SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0700    Terminal three06:20    CO9684     NEW YORK     EXPECTED 0605    Terminal three06:20    CX255     HONG KONG     EXPECTED 0604    Terminal three06:20    IB7629     DUBAI     EXPECTED 0608    Terminal five06:20    QF031     SYDNEY VIA SINGAPORE     EXPECTED 0700    Terminal three06:20    TG910     BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0601    Terminal three06:20    UA929     BRUSSELS        Terminal one06:20    UA9870     BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0601    Terminal three06:20    VS004     NEW YORK     EXPECTED 0605    Terminal three06:25    9W5056     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0628    Terminal three06:25    AA100     NEW YORK     EXPECTED 0611    Terminal three06:25    AA6412     MUSCAT VIA ABU DHABI     EXPECTED 0625    Terminal five06:25    AA6420     DOHA VIA BAHRAIN     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:25    AC856     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0628    Terminal three06:25    AY5992     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:25    BA072     MUSCAT VIA ABU DHABI     EXPECTED 0625    Terminal five06:25    BA092     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:25    BA112     NEW YORK     EXPECTED 0612    Terminal five06:25    BA124     DOHA VIA BAHRAIN     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:25    BA7311     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0640    Terminal three06:25    BD4856     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0628    Terminal three06:25    IB7582     TORONTO     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:25    QF001     SYDNEY VIA BANGKOK     EXPECTED 0640    Terminal three06:25    SA234     JOHANNESBURG     EXPECTED 0541    Terminal one06:25    SV107     RIYADH        Terminal three06:35    AA086     CHICAGO     EXPECTED 0625    Terminal three06:35    AA6414     ACCRA     EXPECTED 0647    Terminal five06:35    AA6444     JOHANNESBURG     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:35    AA6448     CAPE TOWN     EXPECTED 0643    Terminal five06:35    AA7679     BAHRAIN     EXPECTED 0635    Terminal four06:35    AI131     MUMBAI     EXPECTED 0715    Terminal three06:35    AY5944     JOHANNESBURG     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:35    AY5948     CAPE TOWN     EXPECTED 0643    Terminal five06:35    BA054     JOHANNESBURG     EXPECTED 0623    Terminal five06:35    BA058     CAPE TOWN     EXPECTED 0643    Terminal five06:35    BA078     ACCRA     EXPECTED 0647    Terminal five06:35    BD2603     BAHRAIN     EXPECTED 0635    Terminal four06:35    GF007     BAHRAIN     EXPECTED 0635    Terminal four06:35    MK042     MAURITIUS     EXPECTED 0702    Terminal three06:40    BI097     BANDAR VIA DUBAI        Terminal three06:45    AA6411     ENTEBBE     EXPECTED 0644    Terminal five06:45    BA062     ENTEBBE     EXPECTED 0644    Terminal five06:45    BA184     NEWARK     EXPECTED 0625    Terminal five06:45    BA294     CHICAGO     EXPECTED 0633    Terminal five06:45    CO28     NEWARK        Terminal four06:45    EK6328     NEWARK        Terminal four06:45    EY011     ABU DHABI     EXPECTED 0633    Terminal four06:50    AA174     RALEIGH/DURHAM     EXPECTED 0700    Terminal three06:50    BA066     PHILADELPHIA     EXPECTED 0637    Terminal five06:50    VS602     JOHANNESBURG     EXPECTED 0629    Terminal three06:55    AA104     NEW YORK     EXPECTED 0650    Terminal three06:55    BA138     MUMBAI     EXPECTED 0707    Terminal five06:55    SA220     CAPE TOWN     EXPECTED 0622    Terminal one06:55    UA958     CHICAGO     EXPECTED 0650    Terminal one06:55    VS8220     CAPE TOWN     EXPECTED 0622    Terminal one

Nic Doczi ● 5938d4 Comments

I am doubtful that the number of arrivals in the night period 2330-0600 has increased. What can shift is the earliness of the arrival time depending on the wind conditions experienced by the flights from the Far East. Of course, anything and everything can happen after 0600 when runway alternation is suspended and landings take place on both runways.http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/heathrow_team_operationswas a FoI request to the CAA which resulted in them releasing a big dataset of the number of landings on each of the runways in every hour for the last 2 or 3 years. I think the record number was 58 in an hour on one occasion.The Government argue that they have a balanced approach to the operation of the airport and further limits would not be reasonable as the economic damage would not be warranted.We may choose to disagree ! and as further health impact studies are reported, the position may well change.I would certainly argue that the noise impact and monitoring should be undertaken by an independent body.There is a strange logic applying to landing noise - that to get the pilots to worry about possibly incurring fines on making noise during landing would imperil the safety of the plane , so there are no fines for landing noise and as there are no fines for landing noise, the data from the recording microphones (set up to record take-off noise) is not actively correlated with landing flights...... This is despite the vast bulk of noise complaints received by Heathrow being about landings.Other places do it differently. Some airports have the same web-based system to show the tracks of flights ,as at Heathrowhttp://lhr.webtrak-lochard.com/template/index.html but supplement it with sound equipment to show the noise levels of each passing flight. (I think this occurs at Sydney).European Aircraft Noise Serviceshttp://www.eans.net/is a DIY campaigner lead operation which has got amazing coverage of some places (Frankfurt) and is now also tracking flights into Edinburgh.

Tim Henderson ● 5937d

Good point about code shares, but bad news if they can simply increase the number of flights yet stay within their bogus "quotas".My point was, have they increased the number of early morning arrivals? It seems to me they have.Second point, the whole noise framework is bogus and not fit for purpose, unless that purpose is to support the airline operators to maximise their revenue.If the purpose is minimise the impact on the residents and the environment, then we need active monitoring of peak SPL levels with meaningful restrictions based on actual impact, and large  fines being levied for transgressions.Of course the only real answer is to move  Heathrow to the coast for for minimal noise impact, as per Boris's plan. And add to high speed rail.

Nic Doczi ● 5937d

Tim is correct, at least 15 of the flights are code share so the list is much smaller.

Neil Chippendale ● 5938d

I don't think the restrictions on night flights have been changed recently - the scheme in force runs until October 2012. Consultation on what should happen after that will probably start this year.http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/environmentalissues/nighthgs/tflyingrestrictionsathea2939.pdfIn your list there are quite a few duplicate entries arising from "code sharing" BA012=IB7571 and maybe = QF3345.I've recently got DfT to provide the summary data for the last three years on night flights and the number of "disregarded" flights (ones that take place but don't get counted in the limits) :http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/heathrow_airport_monitoring_of_dIt appears that they haven't been using all their noise quota or allowed movements recently !