Ministers urged to ban night flights

Ministers and airlines have been urged to ban night flights at Heathrow in an unprecedented warning by one Britain's most senior industrialists.

The warning comes from Sir John Egan, the president of the Confederation of British Industry and a former chief executive of BAA Ltd, which runs several of the country's largest airports.

Sir John said that banning Heathrow's 15 night flights, which take place between 11.30pm and 6am, would help persuade people who live near the world's busiest airport to accept expansion of terminals and runways.

Anti-noise campaigners will seize on Sir John's views but they will also irritate the Department of Transport, which has consistently defended the right of airlines to operate flights after midnight.

Ministers have promised to review that policy; they are currently fighting a European Court of Human Rights ruling that the noise from night flights violated the human rights of local residents.

Last month, Alistair Darling, the Secretary of State for Transport, unveiled proposals for extra runways at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted and another major airport for the South-east.

Ministers say the expansion is needed to absorb a predicted doubling in air traffic by 2030, when passenger numbers are expected to increase to 500 million a year.

However, the Institute for Public Policy Research, a think-tank close to New Labour, is set to support calls for tight restrictions on night flights in a report on aviation to be released in October.

Sir John said that "on a number of occasions" he tried to persuade the Government and British Airways to impose a curfew to placate protests about the new Terminal 5.

"I didn't see it did our case much good to wake people up, and I didn't think it made much difference to the financial viability of the flights or the airport," he said.

He claimed the industry and the Government should make similar concessions at every airport in the country in order to win support for the expansion plan.