Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Bristol Airport court case is test for Sunak’s green credentials, and test case for other airport expansion plans
The decision on whether Bristol Airport should be allowed to expand has faced a court challenge. Carla Denyer, the co-leader of the Green Party, has commented that this case has huge significance for the future not just of Bristol and the South West, but for the whole of the UK. Despite the expansion application being rejected by North Somerset council, in February of this year, the Government’s Planning Inspectorate overruled the public mandate and the views of local councillors, all the surrounding councils, the West of England Combined Authority, the local MPs and the vast majority of the local residents. The expansion of Bristol Airport would be catastrophic. The carbon emissions from the expansion alone will equate to an extra 1 million tonnes of CO2 per year. That’s double the annual carbon currently emitted by all the rest of Bristol’s transport. It is a nationally important test case for whether carbon emissions and the UK’s legally binding environmental targets can carry weight in planning decisions. Up to 20 other regional airports have plans to expand, and are waiting and watching this Statutory Appeal closely.
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Luton Airport owner (part of Luton Council) delays DCO plans for expansion to 32mppa
Earlier this year, Luton Rising – a Luton Council subsidiary that owns the airport – consulted on revised expansion proposals that would eventually increase the airport’s annual passenger capacity from 18 million to 32 million. Luton Rising has now delayed the submission of its £1.5bn expansion plans. The necessary Development Consent Order (DCO) application for a second airport terminal was due to be submitted by the end of 2022. But Construction News has learned that the application has been pushed back to 2023. The plans consist of two phases, with the first expanding the existing terminal to 21.5 million ann ual passengers, and the second building a new terminal. This second phase is itself split into two parts, with the new terminal boosting capacity to 27M per year and further expansion later increasing it to 32M. It is thought that, if approved, construction would not begin until at least 2025. Consultation documents state that delivering the project would take up to 20 years, “during which there will be periods of construction activity and others with no activity”. A previous statutory consultation was held in 2019, but the airport struggled financially due to Covid, and forced it to borrow several hundred £million from Luton council.
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Bristol airport expansion decision legal challenge – it would hinder UK climate goals
There has been a high court hearing in Bristol, about the possible expansion plans of the airport, from 10 to 12 million annual passengers. Campaigners are challenging the decision of the Planning Inspectorate to allow expansion, even though it had earlier been refused. Lawyers for Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN) argued the decision did not properly take into account the full environmental impacts of the increase in flights and ignored local climate policies. Bristol Airport Ltd first announced plans to expand in 2018. North Somerset council refused it planning permission in February 2020, citing the inevitable rise in carbon emissions as well as the increase in road traffic, loss of green belt land for parking, and rise in noise and air pollution. Then the airport operator appealed to the Planning Inspectorate (PI), which overturned the local decision in February 2022 after a 10-week inquiry. The climate issue is made difficult, by the absence of proper policy on aviation carbon for all of the UK, ignoring the cumulative impact of numerous airport expansions. It does not take into account local carbon budgets, or the non-CO2 climate impacts of aviation. There are also legal challenges under way, of the government's inadequate "Jet Zero" strategy.
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Leeds Bradford Airport: summer night flight limit exceeded by 600, say campaigners
Leeds Bradford airport is currently allowed 2,920 flights at night (between 23:00 and 07:00) in the summer period, which is defined as 27 March to 30 October in 2022 - the same as British Summer Time. However, local campaigners, GALBA, have found that there were about 600 more night flights than this, over the summer ie. almost 3,500. That comes to around 10 more per night. The maximum number of night time aircraft movements (ie. takes offs and landings) in the Winter Season at 1,200, and up to 10% of ‘unused’ night flights from the previous season may be transferred to the next season. So the airport has broken the rules on the number of night flights. Leeds City Council confirmed it had received a complaint and was investigating. Enforcement of the planning consent of the airport is the responsibility of the council. There are serious concerns about airport bosses having "repeatedly claimed" the airport would double in size, and how that is possible, when there are strict rules on the number of passengers and, crucially, the number of night flights that can be operated.
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Truss backs Heathrow 3rd runway, hoping aviation will become “environmentally friendly”!
Liz Truss has reiterated her support for a third runway at Heathrow, as did her new Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, a week earlier. Ms Truss was asked in the Commons, at PM's questions, by Lib Dem MP Sarah Olney, about her support for a larger Heathrow. She parotted that standard answer about aviation being important for the UK's economic growth blah blah. Sarah Olney said, as well as extra CO2 emissions of perhaps 6 million tonnes per year, from a 3rd runway, its impact would be seriously more noise for perhaps 2 million households in areas where Heathrow flights are audible. Truss etc hope (presumably without any proper research into the matter) that air travel can, amazingly, be expanded while at the same time become more [sic] more "environmentally friendly." That means a vast, implausibly large and rapid expansion in production and use of alternative jet fuels, (SAF) that are genuinely low carbon. Paul McGuinness, chairman of the No 3rd Runway Coalition, said Heathrow expansion should only considered within a national UK aviation strategy, looking at all the regions, which so far does not exist.
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Heathrow passengers still well below 2019 level, with demand uncertainties this autumn
Heathrow says it had 5.8 million passengers in September, which was 15% below its level in 2019. Its passenger numbers went up in the summer, though below 2019 levels, and because of a lack of staff, it limited the number of passengers to 100,000 per day during July September and October - that ends on 29th October, after half-term for most schools. The airport hopes, as ever, for a bumper Christmas season with loads of passengers, despite the various UK economic problems. Demand may not be as much as it hopes if there is a winter resurgence of Covid, a worsening situation in Ukraine, more economic gloom in the UK, and continuing high energy prices, giving many people less disposable income. Heathrow said it would spend the next year working on bringing its capacity and service back to pre-pandemic levels. It has claimed it is back as the busiest large airport in Europe, after being knocked off its perch for that by Schiphol. But Schiphol now will have some flight number limitations, from 2023, when the annual number is to be cut from 500,000 to 400,000 flights to limit noise, carbon emissions and air pollution.
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Stansted Airport refuses £1.4m costs offer from Uttlesford Council and asks for £2.2m
Stansted Airport has rejected Uttlesford District Council's offer of £1.4million to cover its legal costs for an appeal over its plan for expansion to 43m passengers a year. The airport has instead made a counter-offer of £2.2m to Uttlesford. The council was ordered to pay the airport’s legal costs after it lost an appeal against the airport's plan in May 2021. It voted to offer the airport £1.4m, including £1m paid on account. According to the report, Stansted's counter-offer also includes the £1m already paid on account, but not legal costs associated with the settlement negotiations. Councillors will meet on 11th October to vote on a revised offer to the airport of £2.05m. According to the report, this would consist of £2m in respect of the claim for costs itself and £50,000 of interest. It could also make a second “all-in” offer of £2.1m, which would include all interest and costs incurred by Stansted Airport in negotiating the settlement. It is wrong that a local council should have to pay so much of its taxpayers' money, to try to defend its residents against negative impacts of a large company. And that councils are then too afraid to challenge. Uttlesford will then have far less money with which to provide services to residents.
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Luton Airport’s delayed rail link, paid for by the Council, may open in 2023
The new transit rail link will connect the existing Luton Airport Parkway station to the terminal building, with electric trains running 24 hours per day. It will not operate until 2023 at the earliest, and an opening date will be announced in early 2023, though approved in 2017. Luton Rising, which owns the airport, said the delay was mostly down to revenue and ticketing arrangements. The rail link is called a DART (Direct Air-Rail Transit) and is an electrically-powered, fast passenger transit running on a 1.4-mile (2.2km) rail line connecting the station - part of the Thameslink and East Midlands Railway network - to the airport terminal in just over 3 minutes, replacing the existing bus transfer service. The airport hopes that passengers will be able to travel between Luton and London in just over half an hour. The total estimated cost of the project is £225m including transport system, station improvements and civil engineering works. The project is being funded by Luton Council and LLAL (London Luton Airport Ltd, the company that runs the airport) which is wholly owned by Luton Council. ie. it is entirely funded by public money, to assist the airport.
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Truss’ new Transport Secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, backs a 3rd Heathrow runway
With the arrival of the Truss government in September, Grant Shapps (a big aviation enthusiast) was removed from the job of Transport Secretary, and replaced by Anne-Marie Trevelyan. She has now said, at the (somewhat fractious!) Tory party conference that she is supports building a 3rd Heathrow runway, and is an ‘absolute believer’ in aviation expansion's potential benefits, with it being "a really important part of our growth." Boris Johnson opposed the 3rd runway. The main focus of the Truss government is economic growth, at any cost, with desperation to get more economic activity and more money for those earning. She believes a growing airport will increase UK exports by air. After years of wrangling, Heathrow's plan to build a third runway was originally given the green light in 2018 by Chris Grayling, under Theresa May. It cannot go ahead until a DCO has been applied for and allowed, and the airport can find the necessary money. Ms Trevelyan said concerns about increasing aviation CO2 are no longer valid because of the development of Sustainable Aviation Fuels.
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Manston second legal challenge applied for by campaigners
Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes has applied for a judicial review (JR)of the decision to allow the Manston airport site to be transformed into a cargo hub. The court has still to decide whether to allow the appeal. The JR would mean the decision in August by the government to allow the scheme would be reassessed by a High Court judge. The airport's owners, RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP), had wanted to start preliminary work by Christmas. Ms Dawes, whose legal team has now filed its 1,200-page appeal, said that developing Manston Airport would cause irreparable harm to the people, the environment and even the economy of east Kent. The Development Consent Order (DCO) for the work was originally granted by the government in 2020; it was then quashed in 2021 after a judicial review; it was then approved by government this August; and it now being challenged again. In October 2021 an independent aviation assessor concluded there was no need for a new freight airport at Manston. Ms Dawes crowd-funded £119,000 to pay for the legal costs arising from the 2020 judicial review, and is hoping to generate £50,000 in donations on this occasion.