Parish Council gets first glimpse of “Future Airspace”

Parish Councillors have been taking part in Stage 2 of Manchester Airport’s “Future Airspace” engagement meetings.

At this stage there isn’t too much to report, the airport have produced a set of proposed “envelopes” in which flights will take place. You can see these in the image above under “Proposed Routes”. (Images redacted at the request of Manchester Airport)

There is a potential increase in flights over the parish, but until we see the routes it’s impossible to be certain. What we do know so far is:

• Flights will generally continue in a straight line for longer before taking off, and potentially climb quicker. This means that Tatton Park for example will see less overhead flights (as can be seen above) as the planes won’t be allowed to bank right as quickly
• There is a potential for East Bound flights to come over our parish. We have suggested to the airport that this isn’t necessary as it saves no time and there is already a route over South Manchester. This route also includes the large planes (A380 and 777) that go to Dubai and Abu Dhabi so should continue going over built-up areas instead of rural areas like our parish.
• Over 35% of flights head South and those flights could come over our parish, but the “envelope” for these flights is from Northwich to Nether Alderley so it’s impossible to say if we’d be affected yet. Currently small planes flying south are allowed over our parish but this could switch to larger planes in future
• Manchester Airport’s own design criteria state that planes can’t “turn suddenly” and yet they’re trying to maintain the route over Marthall. We’ve suggested to them that this contravenes their own guidelines.

We expect to see more concrete routes in early 2022 and we will keep parishioners informed. If you have any questions please email the clerk or come along to a council meeting and we’ll do our best to answer your concerns.