Arriving and Departing Aircraft

Every major commercial airport typically has set flight paths for departing aircraft from their runways. These are in place to maintain safety and whilst safety is always the number one priority, these routes are designed to minimise environmental impact as much as possible in terms of fuel burn, emissions and noise impacts. However, airspace congestion and local weather, such as thunderstorms, may result in a large spread in flight paths. Arriving aircraft follow broadly similar patterns, which are not as defined as the flight paths for departing aircraft. Aircraft are directed by ATC to a position where they turn onto a runway heading (the direction of the runway that the aircraft will land on) before making its final approach. At London Stansted Airport there is an Instrument Landing System (ILS) that guides the airport during its final approach to the runway.

The typical flight paths used at London Stansted Airport are shown in the following interactive tool for both westerly and easterly operations. All data has come directly from our Aircraft Noise and Operations Monitoring System (ANOMS), which receives flight data from air traffic control radar. This system is operational 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, continuously tracking and recording aircraft flights to and from the airport. Flight tracks are recorded from radar data centred at the airport. The reason you will see radar tracks ending is because the extent of our radar coverage is 40nm (nautical miles). The graphic below shows arriving aircraft as red tracks with departing aircraft shown as green tracks.