WHAT IS AN AIRPORT CURFEW

AIRPORT CURFEW

An Airport Curfew is a certain amount of time during the night that aircraft could not take off or land at a particular airport.  This is also known as night flying restrictions.

The reasons for night flying restrictions

The most common reason for night flying restrictions is that cities seek to limit the amount of noise that are emitted from commercial jets or even private jets while most people are sleeping.  It has become quite common for airlines to fly into airports that are in quite urbanized areas.  This has made night flying restrictions a more important thing to residents.

What are the consequences for breaking the airport curfew?

Airlines that fly after the airport curfew time whether a take-off or a landing will be fined by the airport.  These fines vary from airport to airport and for the time at which the plane will land or take off.  Most often when the plane is leaving on a long international flight e.g. a flight to Europe or a flight across the sea the airport will take the fine on and fly the flight anyways.  However, if an airline has a flight that is not particularly full with not that many passengers and is perhaps only a national flight between cities or states there is a possibility that the airline will delay the flight until such time when they will no longer be in violation of the airport curfew.  In terms of the airport curfew and night flying restrictions it also has to be considered the cost at which the airlines operate after hours.  Many, many staff that it takes to manage airports and run smooth and successful airline operations will need to be paid overtime.  The incentive therefore for commercial airlines to be on time has become more and more in their best interests.

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