INCENSED residents say they 'can't sleep' because of so many planes landing during the night at Manchester Airport.

Many have lived beneath the flight path for more than 20 years and have described the noise over the past week as ‘the worse they have ever experienced’.

The holiday season sees a big increase in the number of planes taking off and landing around the clock.

This is the first busy summer in three years due to the pandemic, and it’s been so warm during the night, people keep their bedroom windows open.

Manchester Airport has confirmed that weather conditions and the wind direction over the past week has meant that aircraft have flown in an easterly direction over Knutsford when they come in to land.

This, coupled with having windows open, may explain why the planes have sounded so noisy.

One man, who has lived near the airport for 20 years, said: “It has never ever been this bad. It’s relentless.

“You just can’t sleep with the noise.

“It has been the worse I have ever experienced.”

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One woman counted eight ‘very loud planes’ landing between 4am and 5am on September 1.

Another resident said: “I live right under the flight path and it doesn’t usually bother me, you get used to it.

“But this week they’ve been coming in non stop through the night.”

One woman added: “It is so annoying, really loud every few minutes.”

The airport has confirmed that the easterly operations were a temporary measure and have now reverted back to westerly operations.

This means planes normally take off towards Knutsford and fly round the town as they soar up into the air.

Departures are restricted to between 7am and 11pm but arrivals can come in at any time 24 hours a day.

Manchester Airport has two runways and can use both during the daytime.

However, strict planning permission only allows runway two to be used at night, between 10pm and 6am, if maintenance is being carried out on runway one or there is an emergency.

It has been confirmed that flights during the past week’s temporary easterly operations were only landing on runway one.