In a recent update, the North Runway Technical Group (NRTG) have highlighted the release of the Irish Aviation Authority’s response to An Bord Pleanála’s (ABP) September 2024 draft decision on Dublin Airport’s night flights planning application. This came in the same week that ANCA, the Aircraft Noise Competent Authority released a letter requiring daa once again to submit a noise study, this time for its so-called “no-build” application to increase the capacity of the airport from 32 to 36 million annual passengers.
Dublin Airport (daa) is struggling with major planning issues mainly due to incorrect flight paths from its North Runway according to the NRTG. The daa wants to increase its passenger limit from 32 to 36 or 40 million, but there’s a problem. According to An Bord Pleanála flights from the North Runway are not following the approved noise corridors that were modelled for the original planning application over 15 years ago.
Originally, aircraft were supposed to fly straight for 5 nautical miles over empty fields before turning. Instead, the existing Standard Instrument Departures (SIDs) require an early right turn either at 400ft or the departure end of the runway, whichever is later. According to the NRTG, this affects 30,000 people with unexpected noise, violating Irish and EU laws.
The daa claims the IAA told them to change the flight paths for “safety reasons.” However, the IAA has now stated that they never required these changes. In fact, the IAA has criticised An Bord Pleanála (ABP) for accepting daa’s claims without proper
investigation. The IAA’s response makes it clear that safety was never the reason for the changes.
NRTG spokesperson Gareth O’Brien said: “The IAA’s response makes clear how An Bord Pleanála and others have been misled by daa’s often repeated claim that IAA required the flight paths to turn for ‘safety reasons’. Perhaps daa should now explain the real reason they chose to ignore the Noise Preferential Route granted in their planning permission and use a short cut that dumps noise on 30,000 people?”
According to the NRTG, the daa is refusing to submit the required noise study to ANCA while ABP considers their night flight application because it would reveal their flawed flight path problem. Without this study, their planning applications to increase the cap are blocked. daa hopes ABP will confirm their draft decision with acceptance of their non-compliant flight paths for “safety and operational reasons”. However, with IAA directly calling out ABP’s gross errors and misunderstanding as well as debunking daa’s safety claim, it is extremely unlikely that ABP’s decision would survive the inevitable judicial review.
The NRTG’s statement concluded by saying: “Dublin Airport’s growth is at risk, endangering Ireland’s national economy because daa has ignored planning conditions and environmental law to create a short cut flight path. daa’s next step towards increasing the cap is obvious: fix the flight paths to follow the approved Noise Preferential Route. So why will they not do it?”
The North Runway Technical Group is a group of pilots, commercial and private, along with engineers and others with various technical qualifications. Members of the group depend on Dublin Airport for their livelihood. The group formed to examine the non-compliant flight paths used by daa for the north runway and propose solutions that would reduce the harm to the people affected and help secure the future development of the airport.
