Category: How does the airport operate

• How does the airport operate?
  • How to use our site
  • Arrivals and Departures
  • Typical flight paths
  • Training Flights
  • Night flights
  • Unusual operations
• Your Area
  • How we calculate overflight
  • Detailed dashboard for your area
  • How high are flights in my area?
  • How frequent are flights in my area?
  • Noise data (all areas)
• What are we doing?
  • How our noise contours have varied
  • Our current noise contour
  • How we manage noise
  • Airspace modernisation
  • How we engage
  • Our monitoring system
  • The operations data
  • Sound Insulation Grant Scheme
• Additional Information and FAQs
  • How is aircraft noise generated?
  • Contacting the airport about noise
  • Find a particular flight
  • Useful websites
  • Frequently Asked Questions

Introduction

Welcome to the East Midlands Airport Noise Information Portal. This portal provides information about how the airport operates, how we manage noise, and how many flights operate close to your location. The portal also offers informational videos, general information, as well as visualisations of a typical day at the airport and dashboards containing data relevant to your location.

Entering your location

When you first enter the site, you will be asked to enter your location. You can do this by entering your address or dropping a pin on a map and pressing ‘Continue’.

Once you have entered your location, the pages under the heading “Your Area” will automatically update and tailor the information to be specific to your location. These pages provide detail about flights in your vicinity, such as the frequency and height of aircraft for different time periods of the day. This data is generated from our highly accurate Aircraft Noise and Operations Monitoring System (ANOMS) that tracks all aircraft movements within 40 Nautical Miles of the airport. You can change your location at any time using the “select location” button in the top right corner.

Dashboards

A number of pages contain interactive dashboards. Data is updated in the middle of the month, to then show the most recent full calendar month in this portal. The dashboards first load with the most recent months data, but you can change the month selected by using the drop down menu.

To view the dashboard as a full screen, there is a button on the top right corner of the dashboard called “View Fullscreen”. Pressing ‘ESC’ on your keyboard will exit the full screen display.

Page Navigation

You can navigate through each page in order via the next button at the bottom of the page. You can also return to the main menu via the ‘back to menu’ button which will take you back to the home page.

Wind and Runway Direction

To ensure a safe take-off and landing, aircraft depart and arrive into the wind. On take-off, this helps produce the lift required to get airborne and landing into the wind enables a slower speed over the ground. The weather and wind direction can change and therefore the direction that the aircraft are arriving and departing may change to ensure the safest conditions to operate.

Air Traffic Control manages the runway direction for the safest aircraft operations. This includes consideration of the wind at ground level, 1000ft, and 2000ft, as well as the forecasted weather. Local weather forecasts only display wind strength and direction at ground level and this can differ at higher altitudes. Therefore local weather forecasts are not always a reliable indicator of the likely direction that aircraft will be operating.

When the wind is blowing from west to east, the airport will operate in a westerly direction, known as “westerly operations” and the reverse during “easterly operations”. Experience of operations at East Midlands Airport shows an average of over 75% of operations, each year, are westerly and the remaining operations in an easterly direction. The approximate 75/25% split is an annual average and there are months with a much higher/lower proportion of westerly/easterly operations. An image demonstrating the direction of operations can be seen below:

Arrivals

Flight paths for arriving aircraft follow broadly similar patterns, unlike departures which are much more defined. The flight paths ensure separation from other air traffic and avoidance of adverse weather when necessary. This means that there may be variation in airport arrivals at different times of the day.

Aircraft arriving into East Midlands Airport are transferred from the NATS area control centre to the Airports ATC approach controller between 25-35nm (nautical miles) away from landing. They are then instructed where to fly by the Air Traffic Controllers, where they are directed towards their final approach before landing. When established on final approach to East Midlands Airport, aircraft are transferred from the approach controller to the tower controller before landing.

To minimise the noise of approaching aircraft for communities near arrival paths, a ‘Continuous Descent Approach’ (CDA) is used when possible. Instead of a traditional descent whereby the aircraft reduces altitude in a stepped manner (similar to walking downstairs), they glide at a more constant rate (like an escalator). This keeps aircraft at a higher altitude for longer, minimising noise for local residents before an aircraft joins the ILS (the red shaded area in the image below), as well as providing benefits for fuel efficiency and reducing emissions. Operating a CDA is not always possible due to several factors such as congested airspace or adverse weather conditions which need to be avoided. With the East Midlands Future Airspace project, we plan to facilitate changes that will make CDA easier to deliver. Compliance with this procedure is reported on here and you can find out more about arrivals at East Midlands Airport in the following video.

Departures

Departing aircraft move on the ground from their parking stands to the runway using taxiways. At the runway, they then await clearance from Air Traffic Control (ATC) to take-off. The weight of a departing aircraft can vary due to the amount of fuel, passengers, luggage, or cargo, and there can be a difference in the noise generated as the aircraft accelerates along the runway to become airborne.

Depending on the aircraft’s destination, the departure will fly one of a number of departure routes (known as Noise Preferential Routes or NPRs). These routes are flown to minimise the overflight of local communities, whilst ensuring separation with other departures and surrounding air traffic, as well as optimising routing to the destination. The NPRs can be seen below. You can find out more about East Midlands Airport departures in the following video.

Aircraft must remain within the NPR until they reach a minimum altitude of 5,000ft, after which ATC can provide a more direct routing to the destination. For safety reasons, ATC may sometimes provide instruction to an aircraft to exit the NPR earlier to avoid adverse weather or other air traffic. Compliance with this procedure (known as track keeping) is reported on here.

Unusual Operations

From time to time you may notice an unusual aircraft operation at or around the airport. Below are a number of examples of unusual operations that you may see at East Midlands Airport.

Go-arounds or missed approaches

A go-around, or missed approach, can occur for many reasons such as, an obstruction on the runway preventing the aircraft from landing safely, a change in the wind conditions or that the aircraft cabin is not secure for landing. When coming into land, if a go-around is initiated, the pilot will apply thrust to climb straight ahead and then either turn left or right. Because a go-around can occur at any stage of the approach, the climb and turn could occur before or after reaching the runway. The exact path taken by an aircraft going around will be dependent on surrounding air traffic, the weather, the direction of operation and the point at which it is initiated.

The aircraft will take a wide orbit around the airport and then Air Traffic Control will then position the aircraft to make a second approach to the runway to land. This may mean that aircraft performing a go-around could overfly areas they do not normally at potentially lower than expected altitudes. Go-arounds are a rare occurrence at East Midlands Airport.

You can find out more by watching this video:

An example of a go-around on Runway 27 (Westerly Operations) can be seen below. As you can see the aircraft took a left turn and orbit around to re-establish for a second, successful, approach on to Runway 27:

Aircraft Holding

On occasion, often at busy times or during adverse weather, it will not be possible for aircraft to approach and land at East Midlands Airport without having to be held for a short period of time. This takes place in fixed oval pattern known as a stack or hold.

East Midlands Airport has two holding stacks; one called ‘PIGOT’ which is located South of Leicester and the second, ‘ROKUP’ is located Northwest of Nottingham. The stacks were located here in 2005 after an extensive period of airspace consultation in 2004 and CAA approval of the change. The minimum altitude of aircraft in the stack is 8,000ft and is set to keep noise on the ground as low as possible. The holding stacks are not used very often at East Midlands Airport as aircraft are usually able to land without delay.

You can find out more by watching this video:

Military Flights

On occasions, military aircraft use East Midlands Airport. As military aircraft sometimes need to divert to civilian aerodromes, it is important that pilots are familiar with the procedures at civilian airports, as they will differ from military bases. Due to the nature of their purpose, these aircraft, in particular fighter jets, are not designed with any noise-reducing features so their noise profile can be particularly loud. We are limited in our ability to mitigate against the noise impacts of these types of aircraft.

Helicopter Operations

Most helicopters operating at East Midlands Airport operate under ‘Visual Flight Rules’ and do not fly the Noise Preferential Routes (NPRs) when departing as commercial jet aircraft do. Similarly, helicopters do not arrive in the usual patterns seen with commercial jet aircraft. The pilot navigates using “visual” ground-based features such as roads and rivers etc. Examples of helicopter operations include Air Ambulances as well as helicopter operators passing through East Midlands Airport airspace.

Air Charters

Occasionally you may see some unusual freight aircraft. An example of which is the AN-124. The AN-124 is one of the largest aircraft in the world, specifically designed for carrying heavy or bulky loads. Equipped with a high volume of cargo capacity, drive-on loading ramps and a variety of built-in freight handling equipment. These are specialist aircraft used for carrying abnormal cargo which do not fit in the regular cargo aircraft seen at East Midlands Airport.

Night Flights

As the world becomes more connected, there is a growing demand for air transport, which includes passenger and cargo connectivity around the world, into and out of different time zones. Not only does this make it easier for people to travel for holidays and to see friends and family, but it also helps businesses and the local economy by providing transportation links for time critical goods and services.

East Midlands Airport is a nationally important cargo hub, and is the UK’s largest express air cargo airport. It is a significant base for three of the major global integrated freight operators, DHL, UPS, and FedEx, handling over 400,000 tonnes of cargo every year. Due to a combination of demand for goods from markets with different time zones (such as Asia), ‘next day delivery’ and other logistical practices night flights are essential for global trade.

We recognise that night-time noise from aircraft operations is often the most intrusive. At East Midlands Airport, the night period is defined as 23:00-07:00. Our night noise controls are intended to strike a balance between the economic and social benefits a thriving airport provides and the disturbance which can be caused by night flights.

Whilst night flights aren’t typically any louder than daytime operations, the background or ambient noise level can be lower, meaning an aircraft is more easily heard.

East Midlands Airport has procedures in place to minimise the disruption caused by night flights. These procedures have evolved through consultation with local communities as part of the Noise Action Plan process.

• To encourage airlines to fly as quietly as possible at night, we operate a noisy aircraft penalty. Using our noise monitoring system, we measure the level of noise generated by each departing aircraft. Noise is measured by monitors positioned at fixed points beneath the departure flight paths. Money raised from noisy aircraft penalties is donated to the East Midlands Airport Community Fund. We report all instances of breaches to the Airport Consultative Committee.
• East Midlands Airport prohibits airlines from scheduling and operating the noisiest aircraft types at night 23:00 – 07:00. These are classified as having a Quota Count (QC) of 4, 8 or 16. Any late running aircraft of these types are prohibited from operating during the night period, unless there are exceptional circumstances such as live stock or perishable cargo. Should these operations occur under exceptional circumstances, the operator would also pay a surcharge to the Airport Community Fund.
• We operate within an agreed planning condition set by North West Leicestershire District Council, so that our ‘night noise envelope’ (based on the 55dB L_Aeq 8-hour night contour) will not exceed an area of 16km². The airport is operating well within this limit.

You can find more information within the ‘How we manage noise’ section.

Training Circuits

The training of aircrew is an essential requirement for any airline, and whilst much training is now undertaken using flight simulators, some flying is mandatory to meet Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) standards. The final part of a pilots training is to complete a number of ‘training circuits’ which repeat the take-off and landing procedures. This type of operation is sometimes completed at East Midlands Airport.

Training circuits are operated under visual flight rules and are within visual range of the Airport and the Air Traffic Controller. Training flights are unable to follow the Noise Preferential Routes (NPRs) that are usually followed by departing aircraft as this would likely extend aircraft beyond visual range of the tower. Also, as the aircraft is returning immediately to the airport, these flights do not climb as high as departing aircraft do. Training flights generally climb to 2,000ft above sea level.

These types of training flights are often referred to as ‘Touch and Go’ where the aircraft does not come to a complete stop after landing on the runway, but adds thrust to depart once again. These circuits can be completed up to seven times per student. Because of the nature of training flights, each pilot needs to practice several circuits and hence these circuits can be repetitive. The nature of these circuits can follow a broadly similar flight pattern. Therefore, aircraft can be overflying the same location regularly, and can overfly areas that are not usually overflown by arriving or departing aircraft.

You can find out more by watching this video:

Light Aircraft Training

At East Midlands Airport there is a locally based flying club which offers trial flights, trial flying lessons and flight training for the Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL). These light propellor aircraft also operate under visual flight rules and do not follow the same routings as commercial jet aircraft.

Minimising Disturbance

We recognise that training flights, while enabling the training of air crew, can be particularly disturbing to local communities, so we are committed to minimising the impact of training flights.

In response to community feedback and as part of our Noise Action Plan, we have introduced a wide range of restrictions on training flights. These restrictions include:
– Only permitting training by locally based operators, regular users of the airport, or non-jet aircraft below 5,700kg maximum take-off weight (MTOW).
– Not permitting training on Saturdays, Sundays, and UK public holidays except by non-jet aircraft below 5,700kg MTOW.
– From 1 January 2024, we now only schedule training flights between 08:00 and 12:00 and between 14:00 and 18:00 on weekdays, excluding public holidays.

The restrictions in place are relevant to the noisier jet engine aircraft circuit training. Smaller and quieter propellor aircraft may operate different training flights and routes at East Midlands Airport.

More detail is available within the full Noise Action Plan here.

Arriving and Departing Aircraft

Every major commercial airport typically has set flight paths for departing aircraft from their runways. These are in place to maintain safety, and whilst safety is always the number one priority, these routes are designed to minimise environmental impacts as much as possible in terms of fuel burn, emissions and noise. However, airspace congestion and local weather, such as thunderstorms, may result in a large spread in flight paths. Arriving aircraft follow broadly similar patterns, which are not as defined as the flight paths for departing aircraft. Aircraft are directed by ATC to a position where they turn onto a runway heading (the direction of the runway that the aircraft will land on) before making its final approach. At East Midlands Airport there is an Instrument Landing System (ILS) that guides the airport during its final approach to the runway.

The typical flight paths used at East Midlands Airport are shown in the following interactive tool for both westerly and easterly operations. All data has come directly from our Aircraft Noise and Operations Monitoring System (ANOMS), which receives flight data from air traffic control radar. This system is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, continuously tracking and recording aircraft flights to and from the airport. Flight tracks are recorded from radar data centred at the airport. The reason you will see radar tracks ending is because the extent of our radar coverage is 40nm (nautical miles). The graphic below shows arriving aircraft as red tracks with departing aircraft shown as green tracks.