The FACC
Farnborough Airport has a consultative committee (FACC). It is governed by the CAA’s Airport Consultative Committee Guidelines which state “The role of the Consultative Committee is to help provide a forum for discussing airport-related issues with all those who may be affected”. The FACC is made up of three groups of ten people 1) Airport & Airport users, 2) Local councillors, 3) Local interest groups. While there are individuals in the FACC whose intent is to pursue the objectives of such a consultative committee, there are many who have different motivations. The FACC’s constitution
requires agreement of 75% at committee members to take any action so effectively, the airport controls the FACC. But it is a lot worse than that. There are many breaches of the guidelines such as:
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The chair is supposed to be independent and have a fixed term. However, they were appointed by FAL (not elected), are paid by FAL, had a career at Farnborough and has been in role for 14 years.
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Aircraft noise is by far the largest issue raised by the public yet FAL and the FACC have repeatedly refused to discuss noise issues or establish a noise sub-committee. Only in September 2023 are they considering this, after the PIR and they are not involving FNG.
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Questions submitted to the FACC have not been answered. FNG, and then the public in general, have been excluded from the meetings.
The issues with airports’ consultative committees are widespread and the AEF raised these with the CAA. The CAA has since carried out a consultation with airports, that groups like AEF and FNG were not allowed to contribute to, and has concluded there are no issues. If the concerns of the public are not discussed by airports, and if consultative committees do not perform the role they are supposed to, it is hardly surprising that the public will take action such as raising complaints, involving their MPs and demonstrating. FNG has raised these issues with the FACC and with the DfT.