Eileen Bell, Alliance Assembly member for North Down, said that she had been approached by quite a number of her constituents about the reports that British Midland is hoping to fly late-night flights into, or out of, Belfast City Airport.
” I would remind British Midland that they chose to fly from the City Airport in spite of the existence of regulations that they could not schedule flights after 9.30pm., and, indeed, they gave an undertaking that they would not seek to do so in the future!”
” Many of my constituents live directly under the flight-path, and many more live near enough to be disturbed by the sound of the planes. The routine of day-time flights is accepted as a necessary and, indeed, a desirable evil, but flights at unsociable hours of late night or early morning are not to be considered.”
” We do not wish to do anything to limit the potential for increased business in the area, but there is a major airport just a few miles up the road, and, if British Midland choose to ignore its unlimited availability for its flights, that’s their choice!”
ENDS.