The case in favour of a morning curfew
1. Introduction
This document concerns the proposal for a curfew every morning until 07h00, and also that of a curfew until 08h00 on weekends and holidays. With regard to this, the document demonstrates that the various reasons invoked by the AIG to refuse any such curfew are not valid in the light of the current traffic data.
In order to simplify the examination, as well as to be compatible with the current situation, the examination may use data collected by the ARAG Geneva Aircraft Movements Enquiry GAME)[1] system for the summer timetable period for 2009 (29 March 2009 to 24 October 2009) and for the whole of 2009.
2. Executive summary
An examination of the current aircraft movements data effectively shows that none of the reasons invoked for a refusal to install a curfew from 06h00 to 07h00 have any real validity, The exception is the case of the first departure every day, a flight operated by the airline Swiss, leaving Geneva at 06h00 to go to Zürich. It may be argued that this should be considered a special case, given that it is simultaneously an important hub flight and an internal Swiss flight essential for Swiss businesses.
The most strident objections to any such curfew would doubtless be made by easyJet, who have nearly half of their aircraft which take off each day before 07h00. However, it is demonstrated that the effect on easyJet Swiss would be marginal and could be compensated for by slightly modifying their schedules and by improving their rather poor punctuality performance.
One obvious requirement would be to accept incoming long-distance flights which arrive ahead of schedule (no-one wants to see them aimlessly circling around with a lot of tired passengers on-board). This could be accommodated by treating the period from 06h00 to 07h00 as a grace period in which aircraft ahead of schedule would be allowed to land. Such a grace period could also allow the AIG to give derogations for special (unforeseen and exceptional) events which may have occurred the previous day. Obvious examples might include a ferry flight for aircraft caught in the wrong place overnight or a flight which was unable to leave Geneva the previous night for lateness reasons.
Of course, as for the existing grace period from midnight to 00h30, it is one of the demands of ARAG that any such use of grace periods should be detailed in an open manner, rather than (as at present) being restricted to a closed exchange of information between the AIG and OFAC. Residents around Geneva airport could then perhaps be permitted to understand why they have been disturbed by aircraft noise at unusual and unsociable times of the morning or night.
In summary, ARAG believes that there is no genuine reason why a morning curfew up until 07h00, but with certain derogations being permitted, should create any real difficulties and that this curfew should therefore be implemented. It is, however, considered to be less important than the proposal for a night curfew from 23h00.
3. Data
The data relevant to this document is held on the ARAG Web site and may be accessed via the URL
This data includes spreadsheet information for all fixed-wing jet aircraft or turboprop aircraft movements during 2009 and part of 2010, plus copies of the official timetable information for these time periods.
4. Departures in 2009
In 2009 ARAG recorded 8154 departures of jet aircraft or turboprop aircraft before 08h00, of which 4957 occurred in the summer period (30 weeks from March 29 to October 24). Of these, 2073 departures (1323 in summer) occurred before 07h00: these figures correspond quite reasonably well with the data for table 3.1, scenario 9 in the EMPA report.
In the SH&E report, Exhibit 5.8 lists scheduled airport departures from 06h00 to 07h00, dated March 2007. Since the airline schedules change in March (on the Sunday when the clocks are advanced by one hour) and then again in October (on the Sunday when the clocks are retarded by one hour), it is unclear as to exactly which period (summer or winter) these schedules refer. However, regardless of which they are, the current 2009/2010 timetables show less scheduled flights and a general shift towards 07h00 as the departure time for all except easyJet flights. It should also be noted that in this Exhibit 5.8, less than half are hub flights: most are either easyJet flights or flights to airports which are most definitely not hubs.
In section 5.2.4, paragraph 2, the SH&E report states that
Prohibiting departures before 07h00 at Geneva would make it impossible for a number of airlines to reach their hubs in time to allow Geneva passengers to make connections.
Even if this were once the case, it is no longer true (see the following section 4.1). With the exception of the Swiss flight to Zurich at 06h00, arguably necessary for businesses in Switzerland, there are very few genuine hub flights. These hub flights are scheduled only very shortly before 07h00, frequently only taking off after 07h00. It is also noticeable that neither British Airways nor Air France see any need for an early flight to their respective London or Paris main hub.
In section 5.2.4, paragraph 3 of the SH&E report it is asserted that
Restricting … departures by an hour in the morning would effectively limit airlines to three daily rotations on most routes.
Again, this has little validity. The only airline with a base in Geneva and which makes four rotations with just some of its aircraft is easyJet Switzerland. As is detailed below, only just over half of the easyJet aircraft actually make four rotations, with the rest making only three. It is also easy to find cases where easyJet aircraft leave well after 07h00, and even after 08h00, make four rotations and are back on schedule before 23h00.
Effectively, easyJet has a set of possible destinations, a set of aircraft (almost all identical Airbus 319) and a daily time window in which to operate. The ARAG statistics show that in 2009 the median time for their takeoffs in the 06h00 to 08h00 time window is 07h05, whilst for the takeoffs before 07h00 (on average just over three per day) the median time is 06h43. Thus, a curfew until 07h00 would affect only one hour of flying time per day (spread across over 100 hours of flying time for the fleet of 9 aircraft currently based in Geneva. This hour could be recuperated by slightly later return times, still well before 23h00, provided that the punctuality record of the easyJet aircraft is improved. Alternatively the company could concentrate more on destinations closer to Geneva or develop a better strategy (plan B!) for the days when such problems as the temporary unavailability of an aircraft arise. Such a plan B might more closely involve the parent company in the UK, which has demonstrated its ability to match the punctuality performance of the classical airlines.
It is also asserted in the SH&E report that some of these early flights (effectively the easyJet flights) enable many Geneva based travellers to conduct business in major European cities and return home the same evening. Such travel is arguably less vital today than it may have been before the world financial crisis, which has certainly caused an upsurge in the use of increasingly sophisticated telephone and video conferencing to avoid the necessity for travel. Also, even when the travel is considered to be necessary, it is hard to imagine that a wait of an extra 15-30 minutes before the morning departure would be crucial.
In essence, therefore, even if the arguments put forward in the SH&E report, and duly repeated in the observations of the AIG, may have been valid when they were made, they are no longer valid.
4.1 Hub flights
The classical definition of a hub flight is one on which a passenger can expect to continue the journey on another flight via a transit lounge, with automatic onward routing of baggage. Under this classical definition, the summer 2009 schedules only showed 5 such flights: KL1924 at 06h55 to Amsterdam, SN2724 at 06h50 to Brussels, LH3695 at 06h50 to Munich, TP931 at 06h50 to Porto (suppressed as from the summer of 2010) and LX2801 at 06h00 to Zürich. Interestingly, neither BA nor Air France seem to consider it necessary to schedule early hub flights to London Heathrow or Paris respectively, nor even Lufthansa to Frankfurt. It would thus hardly seem a problem if these departures were to be rescheduled for just a few minutes later.
4.2 easyJet Switzerland
Almost all of the Geneva-based easyJet Switzerland aircraft leave Geneva between 06h00 and 08h00 every day. Of these, in 2009, slightly more than half (44% of the 2567 which were recorded as taking off between 06h00 and 08h00) actually took off after 07h00. Of those that took off before 07h00, the median time was 0644.
4.3 Other scheduled departures of classical airlines
There were also nearly 200 other departures, prior to 07h00, of the principal classical airlines, almost all of which were on either Saturday (Edelweiss) or Sunday (Swiss to London City). It is hard to believe that any of them are of critical importance!
4.4 All others (charter, business jet aircraft etc.)
There remain just over 600 departures of aircraft which do not appear to belong to a regular airline based in Geneva and operating according to the published timetables. These aircraft do not always transmit any recognisable call sign, so that it is most informative to list them grouped according to the aircraft owner. Although there are a few large capacity aircraft, they are mostly small business jet aircraft or turboprops.
The largest contributor is TAG Aviation (Geneva and the UK branches). It is probable that some of these, and even some others, have good reason to leave early (for instance, transport of medical supplies). However, the most probable reason is likely to be that the (small number of) persons on the flight wished to leave very early. As with very late departures of similar aircraft, it is unlikely that people living around the airport particularly appreciate such early departures for the benefit of a small number of passengers. It would surely be reasonable to ask this limited number of passengers to delay their departure until after 07h00.
5. Arrivals in 2009
It is, of course, implicit that in the event of a curfew from 06h00 to 07h00, the period from 06h00 to 07h00 should be treated as a grace period for flights arriving ahead of schedule, since this can sometimes be as a result of meteorological conditions (a tail wind, perhaps due to a strong jet stream).
The SH&E report asserts, though without any referenced supporting evidence whatsoever, that the customer delivery schedules of express all-cargo carriers , including DHL, TNT and UPS, require aircraft arrivals before 07h00. In an age where instantaneous electronic transfer of documents of all kinds is normal, it is difficult to envisage any real reason why this statement should be true, nor to accept that it could merit disturbing residents under the incoming flight path at such an early hour. It is also a fact that these aircraft stay in Geneva all day, so there is no question of disturbing their (single) rotation.
5.1 Long distance (overnight) flights
There are three long-distance flights which have sometimes come in before 07h00. These are:-
It is therefore clear that only the thrice weekly winter flight from Abu Dhabi would need to be rescheduled (to leave Abu Dhabi at 03h20 instead of 02h20!).
It is to be regretted that almost all of these long-distance aircraft are in noise class III or IV, but fortunate that they do not wait until the night before departing again!
5.2 Freight (DHL etc.) and other scheduled airlines
There are three regular incoming freight flights, all of which virtually always arrive between 06h00 and 07h00. These are:-
All of the aircraft concerned then stay in Geneva all day, leaving again between 21h00 and 22h00.
5.3 Other scheduled airline arrivals
There are very limited few other flights of the Geneva scheduled airlines. Most of these were detected only at weekends, using call signs belonging to Swiss, but which do not easily match ones in the timetables. Since almost all of them land very shortly before 07h00, it seems likely that they come from Zurich in order to operate some subsequent flights.
5.4 All others (charter, business jet aircraft etc.)
There remain just under 200 arrivals of aircraft which do not appear to be operated by a regular airline based in Geneva according to published timetables. These aircraft do not always emit any recognisable call sign, so it is most interesting to list them according to the aircraft owner. Although there are some large aircraft, they are mostly small business jet aircraft or turboprops.
One exception, not listed in the timetables and not identified, is some regular Saturday flights operated by MD90 aircraft of the Hello airline. These seem to have ceased at the end of 2009.
6. The possibility of a curfew until 08h00 on weekends and public holidays
Although this idea may look attractive at first sight, ARAG believes that it is not a practical proposition. The examination of the aircraft timetables and the actual aircraft movements shows that many airlines choose to operate the same early flights on every day of every week. To ask them to change those schedules just for Geneva would not seem to be realistic.
It is also the case that there is not a universal agreement on what are all the public holidays: these may vary according to religion or country, even differing within regions of a country.
The only proposal which could be implemented would be to ask the AIG to refuse requests for unscheduled commercial departures before 08h00 if they do not have a valid reason. However, discussions with various companies operating business jet aircraft on behalf of private clients has convinced ARAG that they will vigorously refuse any such limitation. Their attitude has always seemed to be that they want to be able to offer their customers flights all the time that the airport is open for flights.
As such, ARAG does not wish to insist on any weekend or public holiday extended morning curfew, believing that the implementation of the general curfew up until 07h00 is far more important.
[1] www.aragge.ch/game.html
