As the Climate Change Committee recommends restraint on aviation growth and experts warn that ‘sustainable’ aviation fuel is no quick fix, Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) wants 57% more passengers by 2030 and 143% by 2045. Meanwhile, from Tuesday 11 to Friday 14 March, a public inquiry will be held in Leeds Civic Hall to consider the legal meaning of the nighttime flying rules that apply to LBA. The planning inspector will decide whether or not the airport has been breaking those rules and whether or not it can continue to fly the same number of planes at night in future.
GALBA’s long campaign against airport expansion
For those who don’t already know the background, the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA) has been campaigning, successfully, since 2020 to prevent any expansion of the airport. The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Leeds West and Pudsey MP Rachel Reeves, originally objected to the expansion but now supports the idea, claiming that ‘sustainable’ aviation fuel will solve the airport’s greenhouse gas problem.
This public inquiry follows LBA’s breaches of the night flight rules, which were set by Leeds City Council in the 2022, 2023, and 2024 summer seasons. GALBA revealed each breach of the rules and alerted Leeds City Council by making formal complaints. Over those three years, there were 2,145 unlawful night flights departing from LBA.
After the council upheld GALBA’s complaints for the 2022 and 2023 summer seasons, the airport’s management applied for Certificates of Lawful Existing Use or Development (CLEUDs). These aimed to persuade the council to reinterpret the meaning of the night flight rules, but Leeds City Council rejected all of LBA’s applications. The airport then appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, hence the public inquiry.
Public inquiry details
Anyone can come and watch all or part of the public inquiry, but only the witnesses and lawyers can speak during the proceedings. You don’t have to book in advance; just come when you can. The hearing will commence at 10am on Tuesday 11 March and end that day at 5.30pm. Each subsequent day will start at 9.30am up until Friday 14 March, the final day. It will take place in the council chamber in Leeds Civic Hall.
Night flights are bad news for human health
We feel confident that the planning inspector will uphold the plain and simple meaning of the night flight rules, which put a limit on the number and type of planes allowed to fly between 11pm and 7am. These rules exist to protect the health and wellbeing of people living under the flight path. They also limit the damage to the climate and the air we breathe caused by LBA’s business.
As almost everyone who lives under LBA’s flight paths will tell you, nighttime flying is bad news for human health. The noise disturbance from these flights causes all kinds of serious illnesses, including heart disease. Jet engines also release ultrafine particles that pollute the air and are linked to lung diseases. Essentially, the rules that limit nighttime flying are a public health measure.
LBA’s local ‘charm offensive’
In related news, it appears that LBA’s bosses have realised that their reputation with the public is in the gutter, so they’re going on a ‘charm offensive’ this year. They’re holding public meetings in areas under the flight paths on the theme: LBA is a ‘good neighbour’ and a ‘sustainable business’. No, I’m not making that up!
GALBA thinks that a ‘good neighbour’ wouldn’t carry out hundreds of unlawful night flights over your house in the summer. And a ‘sustainable business’ wouldn’t want to pollute the air and the climate even more by trying to increase its number of flights.
We can assume that the ‘sustainable’ claim relates to LBA’s promise to cut emissions from the airport’s terminal and other ground operations. That’s welcome, but around 95% of the greenhouse gases associated with the airport come from planes; only around 5% come from its terminal. So, while it’s good to reduce those emissions, it’s the flights that are the problem and LBA wants thousands more of them every year.
‘Sustainable’ aviation fuels can’t solve the industry’s climate problem fast enough
Rachel Reeves has trumpeted ‘sustainable’ aviation fuels as the solution. There are four big problems with alternative fuels.
Firstly, biomass fuels release as many emissions as fossil kerosene at the point of combustion. Their only claim to be ‘green’ is that you can, over time, regrow the plants used to make biomass fuels, which can capture emissions from the atmosphere. But we don’t have time: we have to cut emissions now.
Secondly, alternative fuels, both biomass and hydrogen, are an awful lot more expensive than kerosene. So, airlines are reluctant to pay the extra amount, meaning it would be passed on to customers, increasing ticket prices and reducing demand.
Thirdly, the rate of expansion envisaged by LBA and the rest of the industry – and the resulting rise in emissions – would far outstrip any reduction in emissions from using alternative fuels. Biomass fuels will, at best, make up just a tenth of aviation fuels by 2030 and only a fifth by 2040. Plus, many experts doubt even these small amounts will be achieved.
Finally, and most importantly of all, there are simply not enough raw materials or manufacturing capacity to make enough alternative aviation fuel for airlines’ existing fleets, let alone for the kind of expansion that LBA and other airports want. That may change over the years, but the fact is alternative fuels are decades away from making a serious dent in the quantity of greenhouse gases emitted from flights.
Sustainable aviation growth is not currently possible
Talking of LBA’s expansion goals, a couple of weeks ago the government’s independent watchdog, the Climate Change Committee, published its seventh carbon budget. This included advice on how UK aviation could reach net zero by 2050, saying there should be a 0.6% decrease in passenger numbers between now and 2030, only a 2% rise by 2035 and no more than 10% by 2040. LBA wants to increase its passenger numbers by 57% by 2030 and 143% by 2045. That is totally irresponsible.
Truly sustainable growth is simply not possible for the aviation industry at the moment. More flying means more greenhouse gases, polluting the climate and causing more extreme weather. We’ve all seen the terrifying consequences of that kind of weather in the Los Angeles wildfires and flooding here in the UK. That’s the reality of climate change that we all have a duty to mitigate, including LBA.
CLICK HERE TO DONATE TO OUR CROWDFUNDER
HELP US BECOME STRONGER SO THAT WE CAN CONTINUE TO DELIVER POWERFUL CITIZEN JOURNALISM!
