A formal complaint has been made about Inverness Airport’s consultation on plans to make the Highland sky a “controlled airspace”.
The General Aviation Alliance (GAA) believes that Highlands and Islands Airports Ltd (Hial) has not followed statutory rules during its bid.
The watchdog says that the airport has not consulted with communities likely to affected by noise from the airport caused by amended flight approaches to Dalcross.
The GAA say that new flight paths will increase noise for communities in Smithton, Westhill and Cawdor around Inverness, as well as Brodie on the Moray side of the airport.
But Hial have hit back saying noise is not likely to rise “in any significant way” – while insisting they have followed the process set out by the statutory body the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
The CAA will consider the complaint and Hial’s bid for controlled airspace before making a final ruling.
Tom Hardie, local coordinator for the GAA, said: “As Hial have failed to follow the CAA’s process that is designed to both ensure aviation safety for all and that people on the ground are consulted when there will be increases in noise from aircraft we have lodged a complaint with the CAA and await their thoughts on the matter.”
A spokesman for Hial said they have been advised by the CAA that the consultation had met requirements, with two rounds being held over a total of 38 weeks, closing last Sunday.
The airport is bidding to upgrade control of the sky around Dalcross to Class D, which would mean all aircraft operating in an area stretching around 30 miles from the runway would have to be cleared by air traffic control.
At present Inverness operates in Class G or uncontrolled airspace.
The Hial spokesman said: “Should the CAA approve the HIAL’s airspace change proposal, then the current flight paths to/from Inverness Airport will be little changed.
“However, the flight paths will be replicated using more standardised arrival and departure routes which utilise modern technology and aircraft systems.
“The density of air traffic is not expected to change dramatically so the noise levels associated with these flight paths is not expected to rise in any significant way.”
A spokesman for the CAA confirmed that they had been contacted by the GAA.
He added: “We will consider the details of how the consultation was conducted as part of an overall assessment of Inverness Airport’s airspace change proposal, which has yet to be submitted to the CAA.”
