BIRMINGHAM Aiport is bidding to fly more planes at night to help ailing profits.
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It wants to change a legal agreement with Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council to fly more at night.
And it has rejected calls to reduce the noise from aircraft from 87db to 85db because of commercial pressures.
A
council report said the claims had some basis.
It said: “It does appear that there is some significant variation between the night
flying restrictions at Birmingham and other Airports.
“The airport company has concerns, which do appear to be valid, that these variations could affect their commercial operations; this could have an undesirable ‘knock on’ effect into the local and regional economy.”
It said the trading environment is “very different” to when the deal was struck in 1996
The council’s planning committee agreed on Wednesday that a consultation should take place in October on the future of the agreement.
It also agreed with an airport call to calculate the maximum number of night flights based on flights over the last five years instead of the last year.
The airport said using the 2009/10 figures to calculate the annual limits means “it would be forced to restrict its operations to the extent that key airlines would relocate their operations to other airports”.
The council report said: “The airport company advise that this would have serious consequences for business in Solihull and West Midlands Region who rely on freight arriving during the night period.”
Over cutting the noise limit, the airport “advised that given the current economic climate, there is significant concern over any changes to the existing night flying policy”.
The airport last month reported the first monthly growth in passenger numbers for nearly two years.
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