Heathrow has announced tougher charges will be applied to all flights that arrive and depart within the night quota period from 23:30 to 06:00.

The charges, to be introduced at some point this year, will disincentivise activity between the identified hours. 

In a bid to crack down on the number of flights disrupting the communities closest to the airport, airlines that operate unscheduled flights within the time period will be faced with a bill five times greater than daytime charges.

Actions are in response to community feedback on ways to improve noise impacts and complement Heathrow’s wider noise action plan.

This news follows Heathrow’s latest Fly Quiet & Green league table which saw SAS take the top spot following their efforts to improve operational performance and invest in greener and quieter A320neos.

The next generation aircraft makes up seven per cent of flights from Heathrow and are used by eight of the airlines based at the airport including British Airways, SAS, Lufthansa, Air Malta, Iberia and TAP, who all feature in the top 20 of this quarter’s table.

This was introduced in 2013 and encourages cleaner and quieter fleets at Heathrow.

Heathrow community and stakeholder engagement director, Rob Gray, said: “It is really important that we work with our local communities and airlines to strictly manage aircraft noise at Heathrow.

“We continue to take vital steps to improve matters, including our new noise charges on all flights that arrive or depart the airport during the night.”