Luton Airport to hold airspace webinar for GA

London Luton Airport and air traffic control provider NATS, are seeking feedback from the General Aviation (GA) community who may be affected by a proposed airspace change.

An online webinar session on 30 November from 1900-2000 is open specifically for the GA community who would like to find out more – you can sign up by emailing [email protected] . The webinar will use the Microsoft Teams app.

The public consultation on new arrival routes for flights into London Luton Airport (LLA) is running from 19 October 2020 to 5 February 2021 and offers the GA community in the areas affected the chance to have their say and help shape the outcome.

LLA currently shares arrival routes and holds with Stansted, a unique and unsustainable situation for airports of this size in the UK. Any delay at one airport, either in the air or on the ground, impacts the other and can cause additional delay, noise and carbon emissions.

The proposed changes will separate routes further out and higher up and create a new hold for Luton arrivals, to ensure that operations for Luton and Stansted don’t impact each other.

Luton and Stansted’s airspace are adjacent and impact each other. The proposed airspace changes will try to alleviate problems

There are two options:

The first option uses the latest air navigation technology (Performance Based Navigation – PBN) at higher altitudes (FL80 and above) to separate LLA arrivals from Stansted’s, with air traffic controllers tactically descending and directing aircraft from FL80 to land. Regarding controlled airspace (CAS), there would be a reduction of CAS below 6,000ft, of about 88 square nautical miles.

The second, preferred option extends the availability of PBN to final approach, which allows a predictable, more equitable distribution of flights for communities beneath.

Under Option 2, there would also be a net reduction of CAS below 6,000ft, of about 84nm2 as the area returned to Class G airspace is far greater than the 3.3nm2 CAS area at 4,500ft that is needed to support part of Option 2. Larger areas are needed but at much higher levels, FL75 and higher.

A technical map with ‘switchable’ layers, particularly useful for airspace users, is available for download here. 

Section 7 of the consultation document, ‘Aviation Technical Information’, provides additional details relevant for GA pilots over and above the information already provided earlier in the document. Download it here

Lee Boulton, Head of Airspace Development, NATS, said, “We have worked hard to keep newly proposed controlled airspace volumes as small as possible and as high as possible to minimise impacts on General Aviation and the proposal includes reductions in low level existing controlled airspace volumes in the vicinity of Stansted too, but we still want to hear from private pilots, balloonists, all airspace users in the areas potentially affected by the proposals and get feedback on the two options.

“The webinar on 30 November is a great opportunity for any aviation enthusiasts with questions or concerns to speak directly with those working on the airspace change and we look forward to speaking to everyone then.”

To find out more and submit a response, click here.