News Updates
July 22 2025
Airport campaigners and people living under the flight path of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) say they’re delighted with a decision that reaffirms rules that limit the number of planes allowed to fly at night.
In March this year, a Public Inquiry was held in Leeds into the meaning of the night time flying rules at LBA. The airport wanted to reinterpret the rules and were opposed by Leeds City Council and GALBA. The Planning Inspector has now rejected most of the airport’s arguments. He only allowed one narrow aspect of one of the three appeals, and even that does not give LBA the main decision they wanted.
Ian Coatman, who lives near the airport and is Secretary of the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (GALBA), said: “I’m really happy! This is a victory for local people, our environment and common sense. While it doesn’t mean an end to all night flights, it does mean the airport must stick to the rules that limit the number of planes allowed to fly at night.”
“Of course, what we really want is a complete ban on night time flying. If that can’t happen, we want the council to make sure that only the quietest planes are allowed to fly at night, all of them must be counted towards the night flights cap and the cap must be enforced.”
Nicky Ford, who lives under the flight path, said: “Night fights are a blight on the lives of thousands of people. The noise and air pollution from planes are linked to all sorts of serious health problems, like heart and lung diseases. That’s why there are rules – to protect peoples’ health. LBA agreed to the rules years ago and now they have to stick to them.”
GALBA’s monitoring in 2022, 2023 and 2024 revealed that LBA had flown thousands more planes at night than allowed during the summer seasons. Leeds City Council upheld one of GALBA’s complaints and issued a Breach of Condition Notice against the airport in 2023.
LBA then submitted CLEUD applications (a type of planning application) to the council, which aimed to reinterpret the night time flying conditions in a way that would have allowed an unlimited number of night flights by newer aircraft.
When the council rejected LBA’s applications, the airport appealed to the Planning Inspectorate who held a Public Inquiry. The decision was issued on Friday, confirming that, even on LBA’s interpretation of the conditions, they had failed to show they are currently entitled to fly hundreds of aircraft outside of the cap on night flights.
Nick Hodgkinson, Chair of GALBA, said: “Make no mistake, this is an important decision. We caught LBA blatantly breaking the rules, the council agreed with us and now the airport has to stick to the rules. If LBA had won, they would have been allowed to fly an unlimited number of planes at night. But they lost – people power has won again!”
“Of course, we want any planes that do fly at night to be the quietest ones possible. We urge the council to make sure that happens using the existing conditions from now on, and that every one of those planes counts towards the cap.”
“This decision is good for the climate as well as local people. Flying more planes at night is key to the airport’s expansion plans and everyone knows that more planes would mean more pollution, harming the climate we all depend on.”
”There’s a lot of greenwash about clean aviation fuels but the truth is they barely exist yet and have no chance of being produced on a large scale for decades. Right now, when we urgently need to cut greenhouse gases, we simply must not allow airports to expand.”
Nick added: “I don’t know what LBA’s boss will try next but I have a message for Mr Hodder: we’re not going anywhere – we’re ready to take you on and stop you again.”
NOTES
Public Inquiry decision
The full decision is long and complex – it is is available here.
A summary of the key points is available here.
Leeds Bradford Airport is big enough already