NEW this year – September 13th is now known as the ‘International Day for the Ban on Night Flights at Airports’ – as a permanent reminder, until an 8-hour night flight ban at airports is fully implemented.
65 Activities in ten countries are taking place on this day, to raise awareness of the plague night flights inflict on those seeking sleep, and the natural environment. Some countries already recognise the impact and have curfews, but not at Gatwick Airport and other UK airports.
Sleep deprivation is used as a weapon in war, yet many in Sussex, Surrey and Kent are subjected to this most nights, especially in the summer when windows are open to let in cooler air.
CAGNE, the umbrella aviation community and environment group for Sussex, Surrey and Kent, are constantly contacted by residents who want an 8-hour ban at Gatwick Airport as a human right to sleep.
During this international day, CAGNE will be releasing videos on social media to highlight the issue, asking the new government for a curfew at Gatwick. We are also asking that residents write to the Secretary of State for Transport, Rt Hon Louise Haigh MP, as it is her department that sets the criteria for night flights.
“The health impacts are well known, yet a night ban is still not imposed at Gatwick Airport”, says CAGNE. “Having spent the summer at local fairs listening to residents, night flights are one of the biggest topics raised with us, as the umbrella aviation community and environment group in the Gatwick area.”
“Gatwick Airport subjects residents trying to sleep with over 14,450 night flights annually, with additions due to government dispensations (given for many reasons). They also cram in flights during what are known as ‘shoulder periods’, when most people are trying to get to sleep, or are in a low level sleep before awakening – a period of sleep of particular health concern.”
What may be one person’s pleasure – jetting off on holiday – brings significant misery and health impacts to those trying to sleep. Science has proven that children are particularly impacted by the disturbance of aircraft noise, as well as commercial productivity.
“It is the health impacts that should truly be the reason night flights are banned, even more so than the ongoing increasing issue of carbon and other greenhouse gases emitted by flying.”
It is not just aircraft noise that impacts at night, but also light pollution from the airport, the traffic accessing the airport in the early hours (due to lack of public transport), and planes flying in and out of Gatwick, all adding up to huge impacts for those on the ground and nature.
“Who really wants to take a leisure flight, in or out of Gatwick in the middle of the night, when there is no public transport, just to benefit airlines’ profits? Even Heathrow with freight flights has a night curfew, so why not at Gatwick that is flying low-cost leisure flights, not freight?” concludes CAGNE.