Leeds Bradford Airport denies night flight limit has been breached

Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) has been accused of breaching its summer season night flight quota for the second consecutive year.

The airport surpassed its 2,920 flight limit on Thursday, a campaign group has claimed.

LBA denied this, saying under its interpretation of planning conditions it had not exceeded the limit.

Back in June, the airport apologised after breaching the night limit by 747 flights the previous summer.

At that time Leeds City Council issued a breach of condition notice, warning failure to comply could lead to prosecution, the Local Democracy Service reports.

Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA), which has fought previous plans to expand the airport on noise disturbance and environmental grounds, said it now expected the council to follow through.

The group's chair, Chris Foren, said: "In June, Vincent Hodder, the airport's boss, said 'we have put in place all the controls and reports necessary to make sure these errors will never happen again.'

"Well, these errors have happened again. It shows that you just can't trust LBA."

LBA has recently applied for a series of certificates of lawful development through the planning system which it says are aimed at clarifying night flight rules and which aircraft count towards the quota.

Campaigners and local councillors claim if the certificates are approved this could lead to "unlimited" night flying, a suggestion LBA has strongly denied.

The airport's CEO Vincent Hodder said work was under way to "clarify the correct interpretation" of planning conditions.

Mr Hodder added: "From our interpretation of the planning conditions, which are nearly 30 years old, we expect that flights subject to night restrictions this summer will total less than 2,920."

A spokesperson for Leeds City Council said the monitoring of LBA's night flight numbers for the 2023 summer season was "an ongoing process" which would conclude in late October.

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