Eastern, really!!
" In this case it is the AIRPORT which has moved in on the residents..."
You know that is not really the case.
Taking Heathrow as the example, what has the movement growth been there in the past ten years? I`d guess that its been around 10% which for an airport of that size is a substantial increase in traffic.
With all this wailing and gnashing of teeth from the beleaguered residents groups Belfast City must have had a similarly spectacular increase in traffic? Far from it! Belfast City has had fewer movements in the last year than it had ten or eleven years ago. Not only are there less aircraft but the slow climbing noisy turboprops have been replaced with newer quieter aircraft with much better climb performance enabling them to be clear of the noise abatement restrictions much sooner after departure.The terminal is now further from the nearest housing and due to the improved taxiway system there is less time spent taxying for departure.
So, rather than the Airport moving in on the residents its really just the changing face of society, the whinging culture and political correctness that pervades every area of our lives that has led to so much fuss about less aircraft.
Gate22, you`re a very funny guy and you must have terrific eyesight if you can see people waving at you from a plane over 600ft above you. I can`t even see them waving at me from the runway and i`ve got a fairly good view of that!! I lived under the 04 approach path within 3 miles of the threshold for almost 2 years and there was no significant aircraft noise and certainly no complaints from any of my neighbours.
My theory is that the propensity to complain appears to be directly proportional to ones income and inversely proportional to how hard one has to work for a living.Now let some NIMBY prove me wrong!!