The Cranford Agreement has been in place since the 1950s, when aircraft taking off used to be much noisier than today.  The village of Cranford lies at the eastern end of the northern runway and it was agreed that aircraft taking off at very low altitude over the village would cause a disproportionately high noise burden for people living there.

Since that time, aircraft have avoided taking off from the northern runway when Heathrow is on easterly operations (aircraft taking off and landing towards to the east). This means the airport cannot alternate the use of its runways when on easterly operations and in turn, this meant that other communities living around the airport were not able to have the half-day of noise respite that runway alternation brings. 

As aircraft technology has moved on significantly since the 1950s, and modern day aircraft are much quieter on take-off, many people felt the Cranford Agreement was no longer necessary. The Government decided to consult upon this issue as part of its ‘Adding Capacity at Heathrow Airport’ consultation in 2007/08.

Following feedback from the community, the Government decided to abandon the Cranford Agreement in order to share the noise burden around Heathrow more equally. By abandoning the agreement, 10,500 people living near Heathrow will be moved from the 57dBA noise contour. 

However, around 3,300 people living in and around Cranford will experience higher levels of noise than they are used to.  BAA offers a range of noise mitigation schemes and will be working with residents of Cranford to help those newly affected by high levels of noise from the airport. Find out more about our noise mitigation schemes.

The Secretary of State has asked BAA to end the agreement as soon as practicably possible. We are working through the detail at the moment but changing airport operations is not something that happens overnight. As soon as we have a formal announcement, we will communicate this to people who will be affected, through every channel possible.

In the meantime, if you are a local resident and think you might be affected by changes arising from the end of the Cranford Agreement, you can find out more by speaking to our Community team on 020 8745 5791.