Flights that take off or land outside of official operating hours cause a stir at Innsbruck Airport. For example, seven aircraft that later used the airport were affected last Saturday.
Actually, no planes should take off in Innsbruck after 8:00 p.m. But a proud seven planes only took off after 9:00 p.m. A Tui machine, which only started at 10:58 p.m., really took off. It was flight BY6623 bound for Bristol. Incidentally, landings in Innsbruck are only permitted up to a maximum of 11 p.m. Starting after 8:00 p.m. is only allowed in exceptional cases. The fact that airlines presumably tend to employ the exceptional case as the norm has meanwhile also affected city politics.
However, not all problems that lead to delayed take-offs and landings in Innsbruck are “homemade” by the airlines. At weekends in particular, there are repeated capacity limitations in the area of ACC Munich and thus forced slot allocations in the airspace. In concrete terms, this means that aircraft on the way to Innsbruck may only take off late at the airport of origin or that the take-off in Tyrol cannot keep to the schedule due to the « delay » ordered by ACC Munich. In Germany, a new iCAS system is currently being tested, which will result in the airspace capacity being reduced by around half, mainly at weekends. Innsbruck is also affected by this and at the same time this is a clever argument for the airlines that the applications for exceeding the operating hours are approved in an uncomplicated manner.
Due to the geographical location, aircraft noise has been a sensible topic in the Tyrolean state capital for many years. In the meantime, the first complaints from residents have been received, and they are not very recent, but last year local councilor Manfred Roner, who is also active in the Innsbruck Airport Residents Protection Association, submitted a request to Mayor Georg Willi. In this, the city tour had to explain itself in detail. In view of the fact that the number of times the operating times are exceeded again, it would not be surprising if the municipal council soon had to deal with the issue of aircraft noise again and renewed protests were organized. The Mayor of Innsbruck’s response to inquiries is available for download in PDF format via this link.
The article Aircraft noise in Innsbruck: Exceeding operating times is escalating again first appeared on Aviation.Direct.
