01 - Foreword by Chief Executive

Foreword by Chief Executive

It will come as no surprise that noise and its impacts are one of the main topics of discussion between a growing international airport and its surrounding communities.

For us, it is an area of passionate discussion, investment and an area of emerging collaboration with a range of groups.

In recent years, we have grown as an airport, increasing the number of passengers by almost 3.5 million over the last four years and delivering more choice and destinations for people. We are proud of this growth which has also created more jobs, stronger business partnerships and a more successful Scotland.

However, we remain committed to being a responsible business that balances our growth and economic benefits with managing and reducing our impact on the environment and local community, and improving our sustainability performance. We demonstrate this commitment by having our environmental management system externally accredited to the ISO 14005 standard. This Noise Action Plan (NAP) draft for consultation sets out our plans to address these noise issues and reduce the noise impact on local communities.

We recently ran an Airspace Change Programme (ACP) including two public consultations. This five-year NAP consultation does not seek views on the ACP process or flight paths. It is based solely on the currently flown flight paths as required by the Environmental Noise (Scotland) Regulations 2006. If the proposed flight paths are approved by the CAA and changes are made to our flight paths in the future, a new five-year NAP must be produced and the public will be consulted on a new draft version of the plan. How we manage noise at Edinburgh Airport is an extremely important part of our commitment to the communities in and around us. We are asking you to participate in this NAP consultation and provide your views on our five year plan to manage noise at Edinburgh Airport. Details about the consultation and how to participate can be found in Section 4.

This six-week consultation closes on 2 April. We encourage you to take the opportunity to help shape our Noise Action Plan for the next five years.

Regards
Gordon Dewar
Chief Executive