Half of the 50 busiest airlines at the UK's biggest airport are failing to meet landing noise targets..

The poor-performing carriers at Heathrow have been written to by the west London airport's chief executive John Holland-Kaye.

The landing-noise scores for the 50 airlines with the most flights at Heathrow were revealed today in a Fly Quiet table from Heathrow Airport Ltd in which British Airways short-haul planes were deemed to be the least-noisy in the period July-September 2014.

Airlines receive a red, amber or green rating for six noise-related categories, with green indicating the quietest performance and red the noisiest.

One of the categories is the continuous descent approach (CDA) in which aircraft maintain a steady angle of approach when landing rather than prolonged periods of level flight.

CDA reduces noise as it requires less engine thrust and keeps the aircraft higher for longer.

The latest table showed that 25 of the 50 airlines received either amber or red scores for CDA in July-September 2014 - an increase on the total of 20 which were rated amber/red for CDA in April-June 2014.

Heathrow said Mr Holland-Kaye had "written to those airlines failing to meet Heathrow's CDA standards, asking for engagement from their technical teams with the airport to increase CDA adherence".

Heathrow added: "Improvements in quiet approaches is a vital part of Heathrow's new blueprint for noise reduction, which outlines 10 steps to reduce noise impacts from the airport by summer 2015."

 

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Heathrow also said that while all airlines had adhered to night-time operation limits in April-June 2014, there had been three unscheduled arrivals by airlines before 6am in July-September 2014.

BA short-haul planes, the table-topping operation for July-September 2014, got green scores for five of the six categories but got a red score for being one of the carriers that had a pre-6am arrival.

Second in the table was Aer Lingus, with Virgin Atlantic's domestic service Little Red third, Virgin Atlantic's international services fourth and American Airlines fifth.

At the other end of the table, the "noisiest" carrier was Israel's El Al in 50th place, with Polish airline LOT in 49th place, Middle East Airlines 48th, Thai Airways 47th and Aeroflot short-haul 46th.

The top five in the latest table had also been in the same positions in the table for April-June 2014.

Heathrow's sustainability director Matt Gorman said: "Since the inception of the Fly Quiet League, we have been able to rely on the continued good performance of the airlines who consistently dominate the top ranks of the table.

"However, we also want to highlight and encourage those that have made an improvement to the way they operate, and will help them to continue this trend. We believe it is only by working proactively with our partners that Heathrow airport can be a better, quieter neighbour to local residents.