Major changes to flight paths from two Scottish airports delayed until 2028

The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has rejected Edinburgh Airport’s plans to consult on the proposed changes, which are still under wraps.

The biggest such changes for 70 years had originally been expected to be published by the end of 2023 - followed by those for Glasgow. This was later revised to late last year.

The changes are designed to cut aircraft emissions and delays, along with increasing the capacity of air routes by enabling flights to take more direct routes.

These could involve changing take-off and landing approaches, which may involve more aircraft using the Forth en route to and from Edinburgh.

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The two busiest airports will be the first of 22 in the UK to update their flight paths up to 7,000ft.

However, the CAA aid it was “not satisfied the change sponsor [Edinburgh Airport] has met the requirements of the process up to this point” - preparing for consultation over its plans - and has “not approved progress to the next step”.

Edinburgh Airport chief communications and sustainability officer Gordon Robertson said it was a “disappointing message” but it was a “very challenging process”.

However, he stressed the CAA decision was not about the plans themselves.

Mr Robertson told the airport’s consultative committee: “It is about how we are set up to go and consult on this, what we are consulting on and how we communicate it.”

He said one of the issues was Edinburgh would need to consult on its own “airspace change proposal” but also take part in a separate consultation with the “cluster” planning changes at the same time - Glasgow Airport and air traffic control firm National Air Traffic Services, which controls Scottish airspace about 7,000ft from a base beside Prestwick Airport.

He said that involved ensuring each of the bodies involved calculated aircraft noise in the same way.

Mr Robertson said: “We were aiming to consult at the end of this month. That will not happen.

“I think more realistically, we’ll consult in the first quarter of 2025, with a fair wind.

“We need to sit down with the CAA and work out as a cluster how long it will take us to re-submit.

“This puts it back a year to, probably, 2028 deployment.”

Mr Robertson said the airport could no longer make even minor flightpath changes until the process was completed, unlike in the past.

It comes six years after the CAA rejected controversial plans by the airport to alter its flight paths following noise concerns in areas such as Cramond and Livingston.

CAA head of airspace Jon Round said: “We have assessed Edinburgh Airport’s proposals as part of plans for modernisation of Scottish airspace, and unfortunately the proposals for consultation have not met the requirements to progress to the next step of the airspace change process. We will continue to engage with the airport.”

He said he could not provide any further details about the “ongoing process”.