The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Worries grow over new Fife flight paths
Locals worried about increase in overhead noise as number of flights increase
An increase in the number of planes over the coast of Fife has fuelled concerns about the potential impact of new flight paths.
Edinburgh Airport is to introduce new, narrower paths designed to take advantage of improved navigational capabilities.
These will result in fewer homes being overflown, but an increase in passing flights for those underneath.
Large swathes of Fife have been mapped out as possible routes and thousands of Fifers have taken part in consultation on them.
Many living along the Forth have already seen and heard more aircraft this year. Edinburgh Airport say this is down to a prolonged period of easterly wind and more flights to Scandinavia and North America.
Among the towns and villages affected is Kinghorn, where there are worries noisy planes may become a problem if they are a more frequent feature of daily life.
Kinghorn community council chairman Alan McIlravie said: “I believe there are more flights over Kinghorn than I ever remember, and I grew up here.”
He said: “While I don’t think the number of flights at the moment is to the detriment of life here in Kinghorn, the worry is if this is what we have now and we become an established flight path with an increasing number of flights, where will we be in a few years?”
Noise may become more of an issue, he said, if the village sees more departing aircraft and larger planes.
The community council is to discuss the consultation at its next meeting on August 18.
Kinghorn residents Terry and Jennifer Combes moved to the village two years ago from Livingston to escape the continual noise of aircraft.
Jennifer said: “When we bought our house there were no aircraft flying over.
“There seems to have been an exceptional increase of late.”
The airport is continually growing and had its busiest start to the summer season, with 1.17 million passengers in June, but said it was flying fewer planes now than in 2007.
An airport spokesman said: “The direction of departures at Edinburgh Airport is directed by the direction of the wind.
“As the figures show, there was a marked increase in departures eastward over Fife in late spring and early summer, which would account for the perception that there are more flights.
“Some routes are busier, but there have been no changes to flight paths.”
The first stage of the airport’s consultation runs until September 12.
The second stage begins in December with publication of precise route options.
New flight paths are likely to come into use in 2018.
When we bought our house there were no aircraft flying over. There seems to have been an exceptional increase of late. JENNIFER COMBES