HC Deb 22 July 2002 vol 389 c733W
Chris Grayling

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what changes have been made to aircraft flight paths and altitudes over London and the south-east in the past five years. [712341

Mr. Jamieson

There have been numerous minor changes and adjustments to air traffic routes and procedures over London and the south-east during the past five years. The most significant changes have been:

the introduction of a second terminal holding pattern, 'ABBOT', and associated reconfiguration of arrival routes for London Stansted airport in April 1999; minor changes were made in 2000 and 2001 to the noise preferential routes and standard instrument departure (SID) procedures from London Stansted airport to improve track-keeping and airspace management; and new SID was introduced in 1998 from London Luton airport to improve traffic flows in the light of the traffic growth at Luton airport.