Credit: Neil Terry
Credit: Neil Terry
GALBA and Leeds City Council defeated LBA's CLEUD appeals!
In March 2025, a Public Inquiry was held in Leeds to consider LBA’s attempt to rewrite the night flight rules. These rules put a limit on the type and number of planes allowed to fly between 11pm and 7am.
We’re delighted that LBA has failed in its attempt to change the meaning of the night time flying rules. LBA wanted reinterpret the rules to allow them to fly an unlimited number of its most frequently used planes at night.
GALBA and the Council opposed LBA at the Public Inquiry held in Leeds in March 2025 and the Planning Inspector issued his decision in July: the local planning conditions that put a cap on the number of planes allowed to fly at night mean what we’ve always said they mean: there’s a limit and LBA has to stick to that limit.
Thank you to everyone who has donated money, written to their councillors, written to the papers, talked to their family and friends or done anything to support the campaign. This is a victory for all of us!
This decision does mean that LBA will have to stay within the cap on night flights but it does not mean there will be an end to night time flying completely.
For people who live close to the airport or under the flight path, this means there should be fewer night flights than in 2024 and 2025 – as long as the Council enforces the rules next year, rules that they argued for at the Public Inquiry.
For the environment, it should mean fewer flights belching out greenhouse gases that harm the climate we all depend on and less air pollution from the ultra fine particles that come out of jet engines.
Throughout our Night Flights campaign, we have been supported by the airport’s neighbours and others living under the flight path.
We’ve received countless messages of encouragement and our entire campaign has been people-powered with more 500 individuals making pledges to our legal funds.
We are proud to represent ordinary people in our fight to make the airport play to the rules.
Thank you go everyone who has cheered us on. We couldn’t have done this without you.
What the Public Inquiry decision said
LBA submitted three applications, each one aiming to exempt certain types of aircraft from the night flight cap. If they had won, they would have been able to fly an unlimited number of those planes between 11pm and 7am. The following explains what LBA claimed at the Public Inquiry and what the Planning Inspector decided.
1) LBA said the night flight rules completely forbid all their newer types of passenger jets from flying at night but they had broken the rules for 10 years, so the rules no longer apply. The Planning Inspector agreed that flying the newer jets at night is unlawful but also decided they had not broken the rules for 10 years so they still apply.
That leaves LBA unable to fly those planes at night at all but all they need to do is ask the Council to give them permission to fly at night – we expect that will happen. You might wonder, why didn’t LBA just do that in the first place? It’s because when the Council gives permission, all of those flights have to count towards the cap on night time flying. LBA wanted no limit at all.
2) LBA used a similar argument about small planes (eg private jets) in the hope that there would be no limit on these night flights too. The Planning Inspector partially agreed but ruled that only those small planes listed on a technical document from 1993 are exempt. All the other flights count towards the night flights cap. We’re not sure how LBA can get around this decision.
3) LBA wanted all flights that are scheduled to arrive before 11pm, but are delayed up to 1am, to be exempt from the night flight cap. The Planning Inspector disagreed and ruled that all those planes must count towards the cap.
You can read our briefing below for more detail on the decision.
The following is a summary of the March 2025 Public Inquiry decision.
Night flight rules – CLEUD Public Inquiry decision: what happened, what it means and what might happen next
Background
There are local planning conditions that define ‘night time’ at LBA as 11pm to 7am. Those conditions also put a cap (a limit) on the number of flights (arrivals and take offs) permitted during the summer and winter seasons: 2,800 in the Summer Season and 1,200 in the Winter Season. These rules exist to protect the public from the harmful effects of aircraft noise and Leeds City Council has responsibility for monitoring and enforcing those conditions.
GALBA’s monitoring found that LBA had exceeded the cap on the number of permitted night flights in the summer seasons in 2022, 2023, 2024 and complained to LCC. LCC upheld GALBA’s first complaint and issued a Breach of Condition Notice against LBA in 2023.
LBA then made three CLEUD applications to LCC, which aimed to persuade LCC to reinterpret the meaning of the local night flight planning conditions. LBA wanted a large number of planes to be exempt from (not counted towards) the cap on the number of permitted night flights.
GALBA submitted detailed legal arguments and factual evidence to LCC about LBA’s CLEUDs and LCC rejected all three applications. LBA appealed to the Planning Inspectorate against LCC’s decisions which led to a Public Inquiry in Leeds in March 2025. The outcome is summarised below.
It should be noted that the Breach of Condition Notice issued in 2023 still stands. It will take some time to review GALBA’s monitoring evidence from 2024, based on the approach to interpreting the conditions clarified through the Public Inquiry. However, we believe it is likely that LBA exceeded the cap last year and is on track to exceed it again this year.
CLEUD A: rejected
LBA wanted all of the newer aircraft used by airlines at LBA (with a noise rating of QC0.25) to be exempt from the cap on night time flying. If successful, this would have allowed those planes to fly in unlimited numbers at night. The way LBA argued for this was very risky and has backfired on them.
They claimed that the existing night flight rules meant that these newer planes were not allowed to fly at all at night. But LBA also claimed that the night flight rules had been broken for 10 continuous years, therefore the rules no longer applied to those planes, meaning they could fly without any limit on their numbers.
The Public Inquiry agreed with LBA that QC0.25 planes are not allowed to fly at all at night but also found, as a matter of fact, that the night flight rules had not been broken for 10 continuous years. Therefore, QC0.25 planes are simply not allowed to fly at all at night. That was a serious ‘own goal’ by LBA.
GALBA now expects LCC to act on the basis of all the evidence provided for the Inquiry and use its discretionary power under the main condition concerning flying in the night-time period to allow QC0.25 planes to fly at night. You may wonder: why didn’t LBA just ask for that in the first place? The answer is that they wanted to fly these newer planes in unlimited numbers.
Assuming LCC does give QC0.25 planes permission to fly at night, those planes will have to be counted towards the cap on night time flying. This is what GALBA has argued all along.
CLEUD B: partially allowed
LBA wanted a particular definition of smaller aircraft that would be exempt from the cap on night flights. They wanted planes with lower QC ratings (0.125 and below) to be exempt so they could fly in unlimited numbers.
While the Public Inquiry agreed with the principle of LBA’s argument, it found that only certain types of small planes are exempt from the cap – i.e. those listed in a 1993 NOTAM document from the Civil Aviation Authority. This means that all newer and smaller planes not listed on the 1993 NOTAM have to count towards the cap.
CLEUD C: rejected
LBA wanted all planes that are scheduled to arrive before 11pm (i.e. in the daytime hours) but which actually arrive late (up to 1am) to be exempt from the cap on night time flying. The Public Inquiry rejected this application, so all delayed flights between 11pm and 1am must be counted towards the cap. The Public Inquiry also ruled that emergencies are allowed to land and are not counted towards the cap on night flights. These rulings are what GALBA has always argued.
This decision on delayed flights is significant because GALBA’s monitoring has identified a pattern of hundreds of late arrivals in recent years. All these late arrivals must now be counted towards the cap on the number night flights.
Note: planes that are due to arrive late after 1am are simply not allowed to fly at night at LBA. They must be redirected to another airport or the departure postponed.
The full decision of the Public Inquiry can be found here.
If you would like to know more about our past work on night flights - we have lots more information for you to look at...
More information on night flights
More information on the airport’s attempts to operate more night flights via the CLEUD process
Leeds Bradford Airport is big enough already