Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
This information sets out to clarify some of the misconceptions regarding Gloucestershire Airport, its plans and its role in the community.
Does the airport have ambitious expansion plans?
Is the runway being lengthened?
Are jet and turboprop business aircraft much noisier than light
training and recreational aircraft?
The airport is a waste of Council Tax payers' money
Does the airport add to pollution and the greenhouse effect?
Has the airport been responsible for increasing pollution in the past 20 years?
Is the airport just a flying club?
How does general aviation contribute to the economy?
Will the airport be quieter if the runway safety plans do not go ahead?
Will that mean 80-seat aircraft overhead up to 18 hours a day?
Is the airport open for night flights?
Are we to expect an increase in aircraft movements?
How does living near to the airport affect the value of houses?
Is Gloucestershire Airport hoping to try and compete with Bristol and Birmingham?
Does the airport have ambitious expansion plans?
Gloucestershire Airport has no expansion plan. Work is planned to address
long-standing safety issues with close-in obstacles and the runway end
safety area to ensure the main runway complies with the current Civil
Aviation Authority safety regulations. These obstacles currently represent
a hazard to aviation and public safety, and the airport is obliged by the
Authority to work towards removing them. Completion of this work will
restore around 160 metres of our existing usable runway
length to provide an even safer environment for aircraft taking off and landing.
Is the runway being lengthened?
The plans propose laying only about 12 metres of additional paved surface.
The existing runway is almost 1,420 metres, which is sufficient for all
anticipated needs (and would be exceedingly difficult to increase, in any case).
Are jet and turboprop business aircraft much noisier than light
training and recreational aircraft?
Popular light piston aircraft such as the Piper PA-28 and Cirrus SR22
are up to twice as noisy as business jets such as the Cessna Citation
Encore. Helicopters are even noisier. Light aircraft also frequently
fly circuits, which can mean over-flying the same places up to ten
times in one hour, at relatively low height. Business jets or turboprops
simply arrive and depart quickly using noise abatement routes and procedures.
Noise complaints received by Gloucestershire Airport almost entirely result from light aircraft and helicopter circuit traffic.
The airport is a waste of Council Tax payers' money
Gloucestershire Airport is a Limited Company, trading as a normal profit
making business. Far from receiving Council Tax support, it actually
contributes directly to the income of its Local Authority shareholders.
It does this by paying both a proportion of its operational property
rental income and an annual dividend. For example, in the last four years
the Airport has contributed a total of over £124,000 in rental income and
£160,000 in dividend payments.
This principle applies equally to all ongoing business investment, which is financed entirely on the strength of the Company's business plans and at no cost to the Council Tax Payer.
Does the airport add to pollution and the greenhouse effect?
The contribution of Gloucestershire Airport to local CO2 emissions is negligible
compared to that of motor vehicles on nearby roads (notably the M5 and A40),
and local gas/electricity consumption. It also produces hugely less CO2
than the alternative. Last year, aircraft using Gloucestershire Airport
consumed 2.1 million litres of fuel. This is equivalent to the fuel consumed
on 650 yards of the adjacent part of the M5, 0.75 mile of the A40 to the South
or just two miles of the Old Cheltenham Road alongside.
It is also relevant that if the site were to be developed for housing, the additional road vehicles alone would consume at least 18 million litres of fuel annually, quite apart from domestic energy use.
Has the airport been responsible for increasing pollution in the past 20 years?
The number and type of flights from the airport have not changed significantly
in the past 20 years and are not expected to rise in the future. Increasing
local pollutant levels are therefore due entirely to other sources, notably
the relentless rise in road traffic. Airport strategic plans aim to attract
small high-tech business aircraft, which are more environmentally
friendly in terms of noise and air pollution than the bulk of the current movements.
We would therefore expect the level of pollution caused by local air traffic to
actually fall over the next few years.
Is the airport just a flying club?
Businesses at Gloucestershire Airport include the headquarters of two of the
largest commercial helicopter operators in the UK, an Air Traffic Control
training college, the aeronautical engineering training centre for the City of
Bristol College, eight commercial flying training schools, two business jet
charter operators, a business jet engineering centre and a jet engine testing centre.
How does general aviation contribute to the economy?
The General Aviation Small Aerodrome Research Project completed in 2006 shows
that the General Aviation industry is worth £1.4 billion a year to the UK,
provides 30,000 jobs and pays £815 million into the economy in wages alone.
General Aviation represents 8% of the economic contribution of UK commercial aviation.
Will the airport be quieter if the runway safety plans do not go ahead?
For many years, Gloucestershire Airport has been one of the busiest airports in
the United Kingdom and is likely to continue to be so. If the runway safety
work does not take place, the landing distance on the main runway is likely
to be reduced from the present 1,000 metres to around 870 metres. This will
exclude the vast majority of low noise, efficient and high value business
aircraft that benefit our local economy needs.
However, light aircraft and helicopters are unaffected by this and will inevitably take the place of the lost business aircraft in increasing numbers. This will result in increased noise disturbance for local residents.
Will that mean 80-seat aircraft overhead up to 18 hours a day?
There are currently few, if any, 80-seat regional aircraft that could operate
Public Transport services from Gloucestershire Airport's runway, even
when the safety work is completed. It is important to realise that the
aircraft able to use Gloucestershire Airport will not be different
from the ones we see now - they will just be less restricted in the
passenger and fuel loads they can carry.
Suggestions of 18 hours of operation a day imply that the airport will only be closed between midnight and 6 am. We can assure residents that that there are no plans to extend regular opening hours to very late evenings or early mornings.
Is the airport open for night flights?
Gloucestershire Airport is a business airport, opening to suit business needs.
Its published hours are between 8.30 am to 7.30 pm in the summer,
and 6.30 pm in the winter. At weekends, reduced opening times apply.
The airport sometimes opens, on request, outside these hours to facilitate an early morning or later evening arrival/departure. On rare occasions it opens during the night for a fixed-wing flight operated by the emergency services (usually for a medical flight).
This has been the pattern of operation for over forty years. There are no plans to change it.
Are we to expect an increase in aircraft movements?
Total aircraft movements are not predicted to increase. (This figure stands at
80-90,000 per year, a figure that has not changed significantly for thirty years.)
They could even decrease in the long-term. What we expect is a small shift
in emphasis towards the quieter business aircraft. While we cannot promise
an immediately noticeable reduction in noise disturbance, that can be expected
to be the long-term result.
How does living near to the airport affect the value of houses?
Because aircraft movements and noise disturbance are not expected to increase,
you can be confident that there will be no devaluation of any property
in the local area. On the contrary, experience shows that the economic
contribution of a successful airport tends to increase local property values.
Is Gloucestershire Airport hoping to try and compete with Bristol and Birmingham?
The proposed safety improvements will do a little towards restoring lost
landing distance suffered in the past. It will do no more than this.
Our Civil Aviation Authority Code 2 runway classification can never
result in a landing distance exceeding 1,199 metres. Airbus and Boeing
type aircraft operated by the popular passenger airlines need in excess
of 1,800 metres. News items suggesting that Gloucestershire Airport will
compete with Bristol or Birmingham are figments of their writers' imaginations.
Thirty-five years ago, local people enjoyed regular, scheduled passenger services from Gloucestershire Airport in small regional airliners of the day, such as the Vickers Viscount and Handley Page Herald. These flew to destinations such as Dublin, Isle of Man and The Channel Islands. Sadly, with the loss of our usable runway, this is no longer possible. The work we propose will 'turn back the clock', making operation possible for some of the modern (and much quieter, incidentally) turboprop equivalents such as the ATR42 or Dash 8.
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