§ 80. Sir G. Sinclairasked the Minister of Aviation what steps he is proposing to take to limit the noise of aircraft using 173W Gatwick Airport between the hours of 23.30 hours and 00.60 hours.
§ Mr. StonehouseAt Gatwick all aircraft are already required, when both landing and taking off, to follow routes which avoid, as far as possible, flying over built-up areas and flying unnecessarily low. In addition, jet aircraft taking off from Gatwick are required to use a climb out procedure designed to keep disturbance to a minimum. For the present I do not consider that these measures need to be supplemented.
§ 81. Sir G. Sinclairasked the Minister of Aviation what study he has made of the steps taken by the French airport authorities at Orly, Le Bourget and Nice to limit night take-offs by jet aircraft; and whether he will make similar arrangements at Gatwick Airport.
§ Mr. StonehouseI am aware of the restrictions on night jet take-offs at these airports but at Orly and Le Bourget exceptions are frequently made. For example, last summer there were 2,308 jet movements between 23.00 and 07.00 hours at Orly (867 of them take-offs) and this is a much greater number of night jet movements than we expect at Gatwick this summer. Night jet movements at Gatwick will, in due course, have to be controlled, as they are at Heathrow, but I do not think any such action is called for at present.