---

Civil Aviation Bill

My Lords, I am sorry to rise again to challenge my noble friend on the Front Bench, but on this occasion I do so fully acknowledging my special interest: I live under a flight path into Stansted airport. Therefore there is no question but that I have personal experience to bring to bear on this point. I support what the noble Lord, Lord Hanningfield, and other noble Lords have said, not because I do not accept the Government’s good intentions but because one does not have to be expert or well versed in this area to see that airport operators and aircraft operators are bound to aspire to an increase in the number of night flights because that is a way to get more value out of the infrastructure. The consequence of additional night flights is already upon us; we experience it daily if we live within range of an airport. As the Minister rightly pointed out, the reality is that some aircraft are noisier than others, although I have to admit that some aircraft are surprisingly quiet, albeit that they are still a bit noisy. If you hear them in the middle of the night, they are considerably more obviously noisy than they are during the day. Therefore the issue of the number of aircraft flying overhead at night when people are trying to sleep is more significant than the amount of noise made by each individual aircraft, and much more significant than the aggregate made by all the aircraft put together. So I contend, as I have consistently throughout the passage of the Bill, that aircraft movement is a much more important indicator of noise pollution than anything else. I also draw the Minister’s attention to recent research indicating that aircraft movements at night have a more damaging effect on the environment than aircraft movements during the day. I do not pretend to understand the science underpinning the suggestion, although I hope to get grips with it as we learn more, but, if it is true, it is why it is much more important to limit the number of flights made at night than it is merely to address the quantum of noise produced by those flights.