Luton Borough Council is ultimately responsible for enforcing the planning conditions governing the operation of Luton Airport, though in the past has failed to enforce breaches of noise limits – in fact it indirectly incentivised them.
The Spanish-owned airport operating company London Luton Airport Operations Ltd (LLAOL) is responsible for safe day-to-day running of the Airport, and is overseen in that regard by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).
LLAOL markets the Airport to airlines such as easyJet, Wizz and RyanAir, and permits them to use the runway by granting departure and arrivals ‘slots’ to operate flights, and to park aircraft at its stands. It’s then up to the airlines to schedule the particular aircraft which use those slots.
LLAOL also appoints staff and/or companies to organise car-parking, checking in, departures, arrivals, immigration, baggage handling, taxi concessions, de-icing, security checking etc.
LLAOL produces regular monitoring reports for Luton Borough Council, its Local Planning Authority, and for scrutiny by the Department for Transport (DfT) mandated ‘Airport Consultative Committee’, the LLACC. These reports cover noise, numbers of flights and passengers, developments and other matters.
LLAOL is also responsible to the civil aviation regulator, the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority), for ensuring safe operation of the Airport and the flights which operate at it, as well as for setting the departure and arrivals routes, ensuring airlines are aware of these and many other flying rules governing the airfield.
To alter a flight route or any factor such as the rate of climb of aircraft on the main route, LLAOL must follow a strict process laid down by the CAA, called CAP1616.
Once a departing aircraft has taken off, control of the flight is passed from the Luton Control Tower to NATS (National Air Traffic Services, based in Swanwick). Air Traffic Controllers employed by NATS will use radar to follow the progress of the flight, and may – in cases of thunderstorms, or when it has reached a defined altitude – give the pilot a heading different from the prescribed route. This is called vectoring, and is used for safety reasons or to expedite the climb or relieve airspace congestion. When aircraft are arriving close to the airfield, they are also “steered” by vectoring to line up safely with the long arrivals track, properly sequenced with other aircraft.
National policy as far as aviation is concerned is the responsibility of the Department for Transport under its Secretary of State, currently Louise Haigh.
Each major commercial airport is required to produce a Noise Action Plan. These are reviewed every 5 years by Defra (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs), which also takes input from the DfT when assessing these.
After substantial pressure from lobby groups such as LADACAN, based on growing concerns over the lack of any effective control of aviation noise, the previous government finally agreed to set up an independent noise watchdog ICCAN (Independent Commission on Civil Aviation Noise). It had no powers, but sought to influence towards best practice, liaising with airports and community groups. The government then disbanded it 2 years later.
In terms of planning regulations, an Airport is either “designated” like the main London Airports Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted – in which case its noise regulations are decided by the DfT; or not designated like Luton – in which case the Conditions governing noise are set by its Local Planning Authority.
And of course in the case of Luton Airport, its Local Planning Authority is: Luton Borough Council, which takes us back to the start, since Luton Borough Council also owns the Airport and derives a great deal of financial benefit from it: so much so that as a result of the Covid-19 lockdown, LBC more or less became bankrupt. The financial merry-go-round is another story, well worth reading…