News Updates
March 19 2025
During last week's public inquiry into night flights at Leeds Bradford Airport, it emerged that LBA had given Leeds City Council inaccurate monitoring reports for 10 years and no reports at all for three years. It was also established that LBA obtained advice about what is now its different interpretation of the night flight conditions just one month after it was faced with planning enforcement action by Leeds City Council.
The public inquiry is considering LBA’s attempt to reinterpret the rules that put a limit on the number of night flights. In light of the new information that emerged during the inquiry, GALBA is no longer arguing that LBA deliberately concealed information from Leeds City Council during the relevant period of 2008 to 2018.
This is because, firstly, LBA’s Chief Executive Vincent Hodder told the inquiry that LBA had provided incorrect information to the Council throughout that time, due to the airport operating below the expected level of professionalism. Secondly, it was only in July 2023 that Vincent Hodder said he first recalled obtaining advice on LBA’s potential ‘reinterpretation’ of the night flight rules.
As a result of GALBA’s evidence to the inquiry, and in the course of cross-examining LBA’s witness about potential concealment, a number of shocking facts were established which revealed:
Vincent Hodder admitted that LBA’s systems and subsequent monitoring reports to Leeds City Council contained numerous errors, which GALBA’s own monitoring brought to light;
Even though LBA spotted the errors in 2016, it did not inform Leeds City Council and it continued to tell the Council it was complying with the night flight rules, because it did not consider at that stage that the flights were in breach of the conditions – the opposite position from the one it now takes;
For a period of three years, LBA provided no separate monitoring reports at all to Leeds City Council, despite these being required as part of LBA’s operating conditions, and only started providing the monitoring reports again when finally asked to do so by the Council, though the key reports are no longer open to the public to view;
LBA obtained advice about what is now its different interpretation of the night flight conditions just one month after it was faced with planning enforcement action by Leeds City Council for having exceeded the permitted number of night flights in summer 2022 by around 25%.
Nick Hodgkinson, Chair of GALBA, said: “It’s an extraordinary indictment of LBA that its response to the evidence that seemed to show deliberate concealment has been an admission of systemic, prolonged unprofessional behaviour. This included tasking junior employees – who did not understand the aircraft noise regime – with updating LBA’s systems with noise information and did so incorrectly for almost a decade.”
“GALBA continues to argue that LBA’s proposed reinterpretation of the night flight rules is legally incorrect. We also support Leeds City Council’s case that LBA has failed to show a continuous breach of the rules over a period of ten years, which it is required to do in order to reinterpret the rules.”
The final legal submissions by LBA, LCC and GALBA will be heard online in mid April. It is not possible to say when a final decision will be issued but it is likely to be several weeks, possibly up to three months. GALBA will issue a further statement when the decision is issued.
Leeds Bradford Airport is big enough already