BAILDON residents can have their say over changes to the airspace and flight paths around Leeds Bradford Airport at a consultation meeting in the town.

The Yeadon site is introducing changes to its airspace, so aircraft can achieve greater height more quickly, reducing disruption to those under the flight paths.

And by adopting more efficient arrival flight paths, aircraft will fly fewer miles, aiming to reduce the disruption to local communities.

To provide improved spacing between arriving and departing aircraft and greater efficiency of operation,

the new procedures require additional airspace.

Under the new proposals, more aircraft will fly over Baildon, and more frequently, but at a higher altitude.

The overall number of locations overflown by aircraft using the airport will reduce.

Airspace changes are being made at airports across the UK.

Baildon residents can quiz LBA officials at a public consultation drop-in on Wednesday, October 18, between 3pm and 8pm, at the Baildon Club, Northgate. Two public consultation events about the changes took place in Horsforth and Menston last month.

Councillor Debbie Davies (Con, Baildon) urged residents to attend the session and find out more on how the flightpath changes would affect the town.

She said: “People are worried about planes going over residential areas and Baildon Moor. But people are also sympathetic to the airport and use it themselves.

“I am pleased that they are coming to Baildon. People might not know that it is affecting Baildon.”

The deadline for public consultations is Sunday, November 5.

The airport will then submit its application to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), who have 17 weeks to reply.

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Once approval is achieved, LBA will complete controller training with the changes set to be implemented from autumn next year.

Fuel saving and noise reduction are key elements of the changes, according to LBA chiefs.

An LBA spokesman said: The basic structure of the UK’s airspace was developed more than 40 years ago.

“Over this time there have been significant changes including a hundred-fold increase in demand for aviation.”

A report on the airspace changes is available at leedsbradfordairport.co.uk/media/2705/acp-consultation-document-addendum-issue-1.pdf

Responses to the consultation should be emailed to lbaconsultation@ospreycsl.co.uk, with the title ‘LBA Consultation’.