Airspace concern over Badenoch
Concern is growing over plans to extend Inverness Airport airspace over Badenoch.
A consultation exercise into the proposals closes on Sunday (February 22) but already Kincraig Community Council has lodged its objections.
A letter has gone this week to the Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd - which is sponsoring an airpsace change proposal to create a control area which will incorporate airspace over parts of Badenoch.
The zone would place aircraft in a holding pattern above Kincraig, some 1,500 feet above the strath.
Watchdog chairman Dave Brown states: “We are a community heavily reliant on tourism for our economy, and the presence and associated noise of airliners circling above us can only be detrimental to this, as our visitors greatly prize the wildness of the area and the peace that goes with it."
“We know that FlyBe are presently discontinuing their service to and from Inverness, and, whilst we have no wish to further isolate the Highlands from the south, we wonder how greater amounts of air traffic can be predicted for the future?”
The community council was also concerned for the future of its nearby gliding club, at Feshie Bridge, which also brings tourists to the area.
It was the club’s proximity to the mountains which attracted the flyers, but the location would be compromised, Mr Brown states, if high flights were to be made more difficult to achieve.
“If this airspace is needed at all, which we doubt, could it not be displaced some 8-10 miles to the west over the lower and uninhabited Monadhliath Mountains?” asked Mr Brown.
“This would make the sight and sound of your jet airliners less intrusive in the centres of population both in the Spey Valley and the Great Glen?”
Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (HIAL) have said they are committed to maintaining the safe and efficient operation of their airports.
HIAL said it was now felt appropriate to sponsor an airspace change proposal with the intention of creating a Class D Control Zone (CTR) and Control Area (CTA) surrounding Inverness Airport.
“Whilst HIAL is sponsoring the change proposal, Osprey Consulting Services Limited (Osprey CSL) has been contracted to provide assistance in the airspace consultation design and to conduct the associated airspace.
"In accordance with CAP 724 (Airspace Charter), the CAA’s Safety and Airspace Regulation Group (SARG) will provide regulatory assessment of the airspace change proposal and will make the decision on proposal implementation.”
Their consultation document stresses: “Feshiebridge aerodrome (unlicensed) is a privately owned glider site approximately 26 nm south southeast of the Airport.
"HIAL anticipate that the site will remain in Class G airspace and the establishment of Inverness Airport CAS will have no direct effect on the Feshiebridge site operations.
“HIAL recognises that there might be an indirect effect upon general glider operations from Feshiebridge.
"Arrangements between Inverness ATC and the operator of the Feshiebridge site will detail integration of traffic operating in the area along with CAS access arrangements; expecting that access arrangements will be similar to those employed elsewhere in UK CAS.
“HIAL is in close liaison with NATS and CAA.”
In any airspace decision-making, the CAA must consider the environmental impact of aviation and the disturbance caused to the public.
Environmental benefits for the Inverness Airport Airspace Change Proposal would see reductions of aircraft emissions and noise with improvements in local air quality and tranquillity, HIAL said.
“The tracks to/from each runway work well and are compatible with the changes proposed to the airspace arrangements. Farther afield, the proposed changes to tracks are at higher altitudes with avoidance of more densely populated areas reducing further the impact of noise.”
For more information, Google Inverness Airspace Change Consultation
