You are indeed correct as I have dug out the letter. I was told in March from the horses mouth that not only was there going to be no changes this year but also in future years.
Noise restrictions commencing Summer 20
In both 2018 and 2019, I wrote to you advising of operational restrictions that we had to put in place following a breach of our permitted night noise contour limit. I advised at the time that the restrictions would be in place for every subsequent Summer season.
I am writing to you today to update you on the restrictions that we plan to implement from 1st June 2020 and in light of the current challenges the industry is facing in relation to COVID- 19. Many of these restrictions were communicated at the S20 coordination committee on the 18th September 2019 and remain unchanged from previous seasons.
The following measures will be in place from 1st June 2020, and will be reviewed on a monthly basis across the summer season;
• A limit of 15 ad-hoc movements will be permitted per week from 1st June 2020. This restriction includes GA and Maintenance flights between 2200-0559 GMT
• No further night slots to be allocated to series flights 2200-0559 GMT 1st June – 30th September
• No re-scheduling of existing allocated slots from the day time 0600-2159 GMT into the night time 2200-0559 GMT 1st June – 30th September
• For the Summer 2020 season and all subsequent seasons no aircraft with a value greater than QC1 will be permitted to operate in the night-time period (although there are current exemptions for cargo aircraft containing essential supplies due to COVID-19)
• No new slot applications with an aircraft QC value greater than 0.5 will be permitted between 2200 – 0559 GMT
It is important for all operators to adhere to their slots, last summer we saw aircraft which were scheduled during the daytime period (0659-2159 GMT) and were actually operating during the night time period (2200-0559 GMT). If aircraft fail to adhere to slots this summer, we will be forced to implement a nighttime curfew during this period. We will continue to monitor this on a monthly basis and we will notify all operators if we need to implement this.
If you have any queries relating to the restrictions then please do not hesitate to get in touch with one of the Flight Operations Team at ***********
Hopefully some of this additional flexibility with the night restrictions will support your businesses during this challenging time although we still have to be mindful that we must work within the legal limits that are attached to our planning approval.
Yours sincerely
****** ******* Operations Director
London Luton Airport Percival House Percival Way Luton LU2 9NU 19th May 2020