Over the last year, we have been working with Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP, Christine Jardine MP and a number of local residents in Cramond to get Edinburgh Airport to look at possible changes to its flight path for arriving aircraft.

The change being considered was a so called ‘offset arrival‘ which would see aircraft (when arriving from the east) approach from a more northerly direction to avoid Cramond and Barnton, The aircraft would then make a right turn to land.

The airport commissioned a detailed feasibility study to look at this option.  They also conducted a number of trials and consulted widely with airlines.

The report of the study has now been published and can be seen here. 

For a number of reasons, the airport has concluded this offset arrival path is not feasible at this time.  It would only be possible for some of the aircraft using the airport.  Plus weather and other operational issues means this route would be significantly less safe than the current straight arrival route which allows aircraft to ‘lock on’ to a signal which then brings them in at a steady angle of descent.

We realise this news will come as a disappointment to our constituents in Cramond and Barnton who had hoped a change might be possible.  We are satisfied the airport has looked at this in depth and considered all options.  We hope this can be looked at again in the future as aircraft and airport technology improves.

Meanwhile, the airport has now submitted its final plan to change the eastbound departure route which would, if approved by the Civil Aviation Authority, take aircraft slightly further away from Cramond.

We are also continuing to push or a limit on night time flights and hope to see progress on this by the end of the year.