Route 4 Consultation – Deadline 28 April 2026
Submit responses to: LGWairspace.Rte4@gatwickairport.com
Details: http://www.route4acp.co.uk/
CAGNE is an independent, non-political aviation community and environmental group representing Sussex, Surrey and Kent, and as such responds to the Route 4 CAP1616 consultation sponsored by Gatwick Airport.
Gatwick Airport consultation on westerly departure route, after failing to comply with a 2014 Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) requirement to keep departures concentrated along the centre of the Noise Preferential Route (NPR). NPRs have existed since the 1960s to provide certainty over aircraft noise exposure to communities. Due to this non-compliance, the route reverted from modern Performance Based Navigation (PBN) to ground-based navigation.
Gatwick has offered a comprehensive stage 3 public consultation in areas that are impacted by the route. GAL advertised the consultation by offering a map that was not true to the flight of the route as of today and historically.
In summary, CAGNE detail –
The consultation focuses only on the initial turn and excludes later vectoring from 3,200 ft, leaving many affected communities without a voice. Gatwick also proposes removing the NPR, meaning future flights outside it would no longer be assessed against NPR protections.
Although Continuous Climb Operations are promoted as beneficial, faster climbs can lead to earlier vectoring onto new routes, affecting additional areas.
Any CO₂ savings from shorter routes would likely be offset by increased flight numbers.
All routes will offer dispersal; as such, this consultation has been flawed in the mapping of a single line being shown in Options A, B, and D.
Proposed changes to government air navigation guidance would prioritise noise alone below 4,000 ft (currently noise and CO₂ are considered up to 7,000 ft), removing consultation rights for communities affected above that height and leaving them vulnerable to unaddressed noise impacts.
The CAA’s proposed lack of call-in may or may not affect this consultation, but it risks communities being used as long-term test cases while the CAA effectively oversees and judges its own process. CAGNE does not consider this a fair or balanced basis for airspace change decisions.
We recommend that stages 2 and 3 be reconsulted upon to include –
- Data from the new northern runway of flight impact of all options
- That the mapping be reconfigured to allow landmarks to be identified which was missing throughout the earlier stages
- And that the historic NPR be replaced as the corridor for Route 4 to enable the proposed options to be viewed correctly to what has historically been endured.
The route is not a single track line as consulted upon –
The vectoring of the route after 4,000ft is not shown only a single line. Even though the consultation only relates to the turn within the NPR up to 4,000ft.
By consulting areas that are impacted by vectoring has been misleading.
The CAA has allowed the NPR to be moved to assist with the flying of the route as it has struggled to comply with the historic NPR. This was done without consultation as such we are concerned that this was not consulted upon and will subsequently impacted communities (see summary).
Gatwick’s Stage 3 of the CAA’s CAP1616 airspace change process (public consultation). While all stages to date have been approved by the CAA, CAGNE has challenged them because of unclear and insufficient clear mapping.
Route options
Based on Gatwick trials since 2014, (NATMAG update 2021 CAP1912) and the flying of the route to date, CAGNE believes all proposed routes are likely to drift north (present a number of routes to give natural dispersal) due to fleet mix and wind patterns, causing noise impacts beyond those shown in consultation material (single line):
- Route A is likely to drift outside the NPR, creating new noise impacts over new communities.
- Route B is less severe but still likely to drift north (noise cone) beyond the NPR over new communities.
- Route C is intended to disperse traffic, but drift may cause the tracks to merge, widening noise impact and reducing respite.
- Route D involves the sharpest turn and was previously legally challenged. CAGNE believes it may not achieve higher climb, leading to lower-altitude overflight. Gatwick may favour this option as it avoids conflict with Heathrow routes and future airspace redesign costs, but CAGNE cannot support this route.
None of the options consider operations from a future northern runway, so should be challenged and reconsidered.
CAGNE does not support any single route. While recognising that some communities may prefer one option over another, it cannot support routes that introduce flights over new communities outside the historic NPR, nor the removal of the NPR, which has long provided noise protection.
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