A new report has been produced by Dutch economists CE DElft analysing the benefits and disbenefits of night flights arriving into Heathrow between 11pm and 6am. The current regime allowing night flights runs out October 2012.

Overall the report finds that the disbenefits out weight the benefits. Pretty obvious result really with millions of people having disturbed sleep under the flights paths contrasting with a few hundred people arriving in London in the middle of night. I suspect those passengers don’t feel that much ‘benefit’ arriving at that time in the middle of the night!

Other research shows that sleep deprivation isn’t just a matter of being a bit grumpy – its a killer drastically increasing the risk of strokes and heart attacks. So night flights isn’t some nimby issue its a public health issue on a vast scale.