Heathrow published its long-awaited respite report commissioned from Anderson Acoustics on 16th February. It is the first of its kind to be done. HACAN was part of the steering group. And later work carried out by Heathrow showed 54% people backed respite even it it increased the number of people overflown. Only 22% would back concentrating all the flight paths over particular areas.
Summary video: https://youtu.be/7Z5mt7rKJgA .
Where to find the reports: https://www.heathrow.com/noise/making-heathrow-quieter/respite-research
Heathrow’s consultation on the principles it should use in designing its new flight paths, released later in the year, showed most people backed respite 54% wanted the priority to be respite even if that increased the total number overflown; 25% wanted the priority to be to prevent new areas being overflown (that included most respondents not currently overflown); any only 22% backed minimising the total number overflown by concentrating all the flights over certain areas. (Some backed more than one option which is why the don’t add up to 100%).
You can reading about further findings here: https://files.acrobat.com/a/preview/95fcb6e4-d297-4678-9a08-3a819f0529d9