A group established by Dublin airport region residents has proposed changes to the operation of Dublin Airport’s northern runway because of concerns that it currently breaches its original planning permission.
The group urged the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) to provide clarity to An Bord Pleanála (ABP) regarding its role in approving Dublin Airport’s flight paths.
They are also requesting that the IAA examine Dublin Airport Authority’s (daa) assertion that the IAA mandated the current flight paths for safety compliance.
Dublin airport says that altering flight paths of Dublin Airport’s new north runway to meet the requirements of the group is complex, complicated and would require significant changes
The approved flight path requires aircraft to ascend straight over unoccupied fields and solar farms for five nautical miles before turning.
ABP’s Planning Inspector says there are discrepancies between the recently submitted flight patterns and those originally outlined in the Environmental Impact Statement for the North Runway project.
The North Runway Technical Group (NRTG) was formed to address what it calls misinformation about Dublin Airport’s North Runway and proposes operational changes that aim to increase capacity while reducing the impact on local residents.
An Bord Pleanála’s (ABP) Planning Inspector has raised concerns about Dublin Airport Authority’s (daa) deviation from the originally approved flight paths, which were central to the Environmental Impact Statement for the runway.
daa attributes the misalignment of flight paths to instructions from the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) for safety reasons; however, the IAA has not confirmed this claim, leading to calls from NRTG for the IAA to clarify its role in regulating flight paths.
Gareth O’Brien, spokesperson for the residents group shared “this clarification by ABP is significant because it confirms a deviation from the runway’s Noise Preferential Route, a clear breach of Condition 1 of the planning permission which remains in force. In 2007 An Bórd Pleanála stressed that granting the permission was fundamentally based on environmental information supplied by daa and they reinforced this with Condition 1 requiring no deviation from the EIS”
