CAA knew of wider City Airport flight path 5 years ago’ claim

THE controversial new City Airport flight path across East London was on the cards five years before the public was told, it has emerged. The claim is made by the Fight The Flights’ campaign fighting the expansion of City Airport

By Mike Brooke

THE controversial new City Airport flight path across East London was on the cards five years before the public was told, it has emerged.

The claim is made this week by the Fight The Flights’ campaign battling against the expansion of London City Airport flights, now subject to a legal challenge.

Campaigners had a meeting with the Civil Aviation Authority in which they were told the wider flight path proposal goes back to 2005.

Aircraft were rerouted in September over wider areas of Bow, Hackney, Leyton and Wanstead when the Aviation authority ruled that the large number of jets now using the Royal Docks runway could not safely make the narrow turn of the previous flight path.

Campaign chair Anne-Marie Griffin said: “We are shocked that the CAA and presumably City Airport knew that new flight paths would need to be introduced so many years ago. If they had been more straightforward, many more people would have objected to the application to increase flights by 50 per cent.”

Several MPs and the East London boroughs of Waltham Forest and Redbridge have expressed concern at the standard of consultation before the flight path was introduced.

The Fight The Flights’ campaign began a legal challenge in September, claiming Newham Council failed to follow Government policy on climate change and failed to consult neighbouring local authorities of Tower Hamlets, Hackney and Waltham Forest and their residents.