Eastleigh Borough Council has refused Royal Mail permission to fly in to Southampton Airport during the night.
Royal Mail wanted to land at around
2am during weekdays while work is being carried out at Bournemouth
Airport. But the move would have contravened Eastleigh’s ‘Flying
Controls Agreement’, which prohibits most air traffic movements between
11pm and 6am during the week.
Chris Bluemel, coordinator of AXE (Against expansion at Eastleigh),
stressed that the Flying Controls Agreement is of vital importance to
thousands of residents living in areas around the airport.
“We are delighted that Eastleigh Borough Council and Southampton
Airport recognise the importance of the controls to the well-being of
the residents affected,” he said. “However, we are shocked by the fact
that Royal Mail are using air mail for domestic post at all. Even the
Chair of the Committee himself pointed out that even four 40T mail
lorries produced around 10% of the greenhouse gases produced by a plane
carrying the same amount of mail.”
See also our earlier story here.
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12th January 2026