Manchester Airport are holding a series of outreach meetings at which, among other things, you can go along and have a one-to-one chat with someone from the airport about any concerns you may have (flightpaths has been the main one that’s come my way from this area).

Our local one is at Cheadle Library, 28th September from 12-7pm, but there are a few you can get to before then without having to travel too far.

Here’s the poster with all the details.

I’ve received this today (7th April):

I am writing to advise you that important maintenance checks will be carried out tonight on Runway 1’s edge and end lights (Runway 23R/05L). Faults have developed today and they must be investigated immediately. Whilst these faults do not affect the safety of aircraft, due to the stringencies of our Aerodrome Licence we are not able to delay these checks until our declared runway closures starting on Sunday night.

To accommodate the Runway 1 closure, Runway 2 (Runway 23L/05R) will be used as the sole runway between 2300 and 0600 hours, from 2300 hours on Wednesday 7th until 0600 hours on Thursday 8th April. As always, the prevailing weather conditions will determine in which direction aircraft will take-off and land; tonight we are forecast for clear skies and westerly operations. Sixteen flights will be affected by these closures.

As you may be aware due to the football match tonight between Bayern Munich and Manchester United there will be a number of charter flights to return fans to Munich. We have chosen to start these works after 23:00 hrs in order to allow the departure of these additional charter flights from Runway 1 and minimise community disturbance.

We do of course regret any disturbance the night time use of Runway 2 may cause to you or those that you represent. We plan to close Runway 1 between 23:00 and 06:00 hours but we will of course return to our preferred single runway operations on Runway 1 if this necessary work is completed sooner.

Yours sincerely

Jonathan Challis
Community Advisor
Manchester Airport
Tel. +44 (0) 161 489 8705
Fax. +44 (0) 161 489 3467

I haven’t ventured out too far today - just walked into the village, so this isn’t a complete picture.

As far as I know:

• We’ve had around 10cm/4 inches of snow.
• The trains out from Manchester to Gatley aren’t currently running
• No planes are coming in or out of Manchester Airport at least until noon and the airport warns that some of the approach roads are difficult to pass.
• Lots of people walking into the village - all the snow makes the pavements less slippery, for now at least.
• The roads I’ve seen are passable with care in a car, though some people are having problems on the hills.
• Most of the local schools appear to be closed
• There’s no refuse or recycling collection today

See also my report on snow, travel and services for 6th Jan.

Over the last couple of months I’ve been contacted by people concerned about an increase in aircraft noises.  I tried to contact Manchester Airport but heard nothing.  Finally, a colleague found out it was an issue with their automated landing system.

Well, this morning I’ve received a letter from the airport - you can click on the thumbnail to see it.

The message seems to be that things are back to normal now and, next time, they’ll make more of an effort to tell people what’s going on.  Let’s hope so.

A few weeks back I asked if anyone was experiencing more noise from aircraft, especially around Gatley Road.  A few people got in touch (which is more than Manchester Airport did - I never had a response to my emails).

My friend Cllr Lenny Grice sits on some airport committee so he found out the details.

It seems that the computer system that normally guides pilots in to land is out of action at the moment (don’t know why).   The result is that aircraft are being guided in to land in a different way, resultingin a wider corridor.

So, although not every plane is coming in over the area, some are.

That should be temporary, but I don’t have an end date.

Here’s the poster for a Manchester Airport Community Outreach event in Edgely on 5th October.  Looks interesting - click on the thumbnail to see the details.

I’ve been contacted by a resident on Gatley Road who’s been disturbed by aircraft a lot more in the last couple weeks than previously.

I’d really like to know if anyone else has experienced a noticable increase in aircraft noise over the last two weeks - please use the contact form or drop me an email if you have (let me know your address too).