The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has now completed its review of Route 4 and announced that the basic flight-path will remain as it is for the foreseeable future.

However, within the new CAA guidelines for the route, the CAA has given a number of ‘undertakings’ to Gatwick Airport Limited (GAL) to implement measures to provide respite for affected residents, either by rotating alternative routings within the Noise Preferential tolerance area, more use of alternative take off routes or continuous climb procedures.

These undertakings respond to continuing efforts by Crispin Blunt and others, pressing for further changes to the Gatwick Airport take-off Route 4, which heads west before turning east to fly back over the parts of the constituency south of Reigate and Redhill causing continuous disruption to those constituents living under its concentrated flightpath.

The current route was introduced in May 2016 and uses PR-NAV technology to enable aircraft to fly accurately within a narrow track, causing regular and intense noise to those living below.

Crispin Blunt commented:

“The fact that GAL has been given undertakings to develop dispersed routings and implement measures to address concentrated noise is a good result which should mean that noise pollution will eventually be less concentrated over affected areas than it has been since May 2016. The CAA has clearly listened to residents’ concerns and those expressed by their MPs. There is no easy answer to the problem of overflying aircraft in my constituency, but I have been pressing for changes to national airspace policy to favour dispersal of flight routings rather than concentration, enabling all residents to benefit from periods of respite from constant aircraft noise.”

“I will continue to monitor the impact of this and other concentrated PR-NAV satellite based routes from local airports and will continue to make representations to Government seeking a long term policy which provides for greater dispersal and multiple respites for affected areas so as to alleviate aviation noise on local communities in the future.”