Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Appeal by Southampton campaigners, against runway extension, refused by Court of Appeal
The Court of Appeal has refused an appeal by a local campaign group, GOESA Ltd (Group opposed to expansion of Southampton Airport), upholding the decision by Eastleigh Borough Council that the Southampton Airport runway can be lengthened by 164 metres. An associated blast screen and an expansion of the current long-stay car park are also part of the approved scheme. It is now over 18 months after the runway extension was first approved by the council. In August 2021, campaigners from the Airport Expansion Opposition Southampton group challenged the planning permission in court over concerns that the proposal would increase noise, traffic, pollution and carbon emissions. The High Court rejected the claim. In December 2021, the application was renewed and the campaigners were granted a judicial review. The campaigners argued that the decision to extend the runway was “unlawful” as it was rushed, and skipped essential assessments and formalities. In May 2022 the High Court rejected the JR and ruled that the approval had not been unlawful. Campaigners appealed against this decision. That has now been rejected. There are no further legal options. It is totally at variance with the rapid action needed in the next few years, to cut the UK's carbon emissions.
Click here to view full story...
Letter from Zack Polanski (Chair of London Assembly Environment Cttee) to Gatwick’s Stewart Wingate,
The Gatwick consultation ends on 27th July. In a letter to Gatwick's CEO, Stewart Wingate, Zack Polanski (London Assembly Member and Chair of London's Environment Committee), sets out reasons to oppose the planned expansion of the airport. He says aviation in the UK already adds around 10% of the country's climate impact, compared to around 2% as the global average - indicating how much British people fly. The proportion of people who (before Covid) flew in any one year is about 50%, which is far higher than the global average. The Climate Change Committee has said that a restriction on air travel demand is needed. So any airport expansion is completely at variance with that. There are no realistic technologies, available in the next 20 - 30 years, to enable a large amount of zero carbon flying. It just won't happen. "Airlines are out of control; they fail to meet even basic climate targets and are marking their own homework." The Mayor of London has said: “I fail to see how any airport expansion can be justified, being incompatible with achieving the UK’s net zero target”. Expanding Gatwick will worsen air pollution, and road and rail congestion, with negative effects on London as well as locally.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow makes a loss in first half of 2022; debt increases; RAB increases
Heathrow airport has reported a £321m adjusted pretax loss for the first half of the year after weeks of lengthy queues and flight cancellations, with passenger numbers back at near pre-pandemic levels. It recently had to announce a daily cap of 100,000 passengers until early September. It estimated that airlines were lacking about 30% of ground handling staff compared with before Covid. The airport said it did not expect to pay any dividends to its shareholders for the rest of the year. Heathrow's revenue in the 6 months to 30th June was £1,280 million, compared to £348 million in 2021, and £712m in 2020, and £1,461m in 2019. The £231 million loss in 2022 compares with a loss of £787m in 2021, a loss of £471m in 2020, and a £153m profit in 2019. Heathrow's Regulated Asset Base (RAB), on the size of which it can levy passenger charges, was £18,425m in 2022, compared to £17,474m in 2021, £16,516m in 2020 and £16,598m in 2019. Heathrow Finance plc consolidated nominal net debt was £15,561 million in 2022, compared to £15,440m in 2021, £14,932m in 2020 and £14,361m in 2019. ie. it has risen a lot.
Click here to view full story...
Government remains committed to airport expansions
In its Jet Zero Strategy, which is all the UK has in place of a proper aviation policy, the government will continue to support “justified” airport expansions while - claiming it is working to "make the UK’s aviation sector net zero by 2050." While there are no realistic means of cutting aviation CO2 emissions, at any scale, for decades to come, the DfT wants to continue to encourage more air travel. The means of purporting to cut aviation emissions, without actually cutting the amount of CO2 that comes out of jet engines, are using alternative (allegedly lower carbon) jet fuels, by carbon capture and permanent storage (that is not going to happen at any scale any time soon) and some tweaks to aircraft design. The DfT will continue to support airport expansions as it has “a role to play in realising the benefits for the UK through boosting our global connectivity and levelling up”. It believes that the existing policy frameworks for airport planning “provide a robust and balanced framework for airports to grow sustainably within our strict environmental criteria”. A true case of "sustainable growth" being a nonsensical oxymoron. The only way to limit UK aviation emissions is fewer flights, and fewer air trips. One way to assist that would be not expanding any airports.
Click here to view full story...
Travel chaos won’t bother Heathrow, “the ATM with runways attached”
Heathrow has been highly profitable for its owners, which include Ferrovial, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, and USS, the British academics’ pension scheme. Since 2012, the owners have taken £4 billion in dividends (but nothing in 2021 and only £100m in 2020)— and Heathrow is still valued at more than £17 billion. But it has £16 billion of debt to boost the returns. These amazing economics are due to the antiquated way Heathrow is regulated. Because it’s a monopoly, for long haul flights, the CAA sets its returns, using the "regulated asset base" (RAB), and decides what it can charge airlines on the back of that. But this encourages the owners to throw as many costs as they can on to the RAB. Inflating Heathrow’s value means they get paid more. So wherever it can, Heathrow gold-plates spending - with everything costing as much as possible. Much of Heathrow's income comes from passenger charges, which were £19 pre-Covid; the CAA allowed a temporary increase to £30; and they now have to fall back to £26 by 2026. Heathrow has been described as "a cash machine with a couple of runways attached." At least it now seems the 3rd runway is unlikely to be built.
Click here to view full story...
Government’s brief airport landing slot amnesty ended on 8th July
The government’s short, one-off “amnesty” on airport slots rules, that started on 21st June, came to and on 8th July. The relaxation policy was announced by transport minister Grant Shapps and aviation minister Robert Courts on 21st June, to help airlines deliver a “realistic summer schedule” to minimise disruption and avoid last-minute flight cancellations. Airlines did not have to use 70% of their slots, which is the usual requirement. Airlines cancelled a lot of flights, as they did not have enough staff. Some relinquished slots may have been used by airlines that had better staffing. Airlines will now have to use 70% of their slots, or lose them. The level had been 80% before the pandemic. The necessity of using slots means a higher chance of airlines flying almost empty planes - with high unnecessary CO2 emissions. In March an MP got information from the DfT and CAA, to a parliamentary question, revealing that there had been almost 15,000 “ghost flights” (ie. with under 10% of passengers) that took off from the 32 UK airports between March 2020 and September 2021.
Click here to view full story...
Delayed Heathrow flights making sleep ‘impossible’ for surrounding areas
Residents living under Heathrow’s flight paths are being kept awake until after midnight by an increase in late arriving and departing night flights due to disruption across the aviation sector. Planes are being allowed to arrive and depart later than planned. In theory, Heathrow has no scheduled departures between 10.50pm and 6am, or scheduled arrivals between 10.55pm and 4.40am, but take-offs and landings occur within those periods - especially if planes are delayed. Flight punctuality has plummeted in recent months as airlines and airports have been unable to cope, due to lack of staff. Overflown residents are given little respite, with flights at 12.30am and then at 4.33am. There are the inevitable problems of those wanting planes to climb faster, so at higher altitude over many suburbs - but meaning more noise for those nearer the airport. People across a very wide area are being negatively affected by the night noise, which means that local communities are facing greater disturbance. The industry has no intention of reducing night flights. For decent health, adults need 7 hours of sleep each night - or more.
Click here to view full story...
London City Airport consultation on plans to increase passenger numbers from 6.5 million to 9 million per year
London City Airport has a consultation (ends 9th September) about further expansion. It wants to increase passenger numbers from 6.5 million to 9 million per year. It wants to end the ban on flights on Saturday afternoon and evening; and operate more flights during the first hour of operation after 6.30am, and also in the late evening. The annual cap on the number of flights permitted will remain at 111,000. Earlier proposals to raise it to 151,000 have been dropped. The 8 hour night period with no flights will also remain in place. The airport will stipulate that only the "cleaner, quieter " planes (ie. in theory, slightly lower carbon emissions, and slightly less noisy) can fly during the additional hours of operation. Hacan East says these planes will be noticeably quieter but only on departure and only within about 4 miles from the airport. The difference is negligible elsewhere. There will be "more flexibility" (ie. allowing later flights) for delayed departures and arrivals in the last half hour of operations each day (10pm – 10.30pm) – they are currently limited to 400 per year. There will be larger planes (ie. noisier), to increase the annual number of passengers (most are now leisure).
Click here to view full story...
Gatwick Airport northern runway plans will add traffic that Surrey roads ‘cannot take’
Tandridge District Council's planning policy committee is concerned that the planned expansion of Gatwick airport (bringing their standby runway into routine use) will put too much strain on the roads around the airport. Councillors consider that the roads "cannot take" the extra traffic that will come with changes to the airport currently being proposed. Gatwick currently has a public consultation about some aspects, especially roads, of its growth plans. Most roads in the area, that would become busier, would not see any improvements. Gatwick claims that in 2019, its busiest year, it had 46.6million passengers and a record 47.4% of passengers and 40% of staff travelled to the airport by public transport including by rail, bus or coach. A Tandridge officers' report said the council was required to respond to various initiatives within legally set time frames. The report said: "The local implications of proposals surrounding Gatwick Airport are significant." Campaigners around the airport have a large number of concerns about more flights, more or altered flight paths, congested trains, more noise, more night flights, more air pollution and higher CO2 emissions, for the expansion.
Click here to view full story...
CAA confirms it wants Heathrow landing charges to fall from £30.19 to £26.31 for next 5 years
The CAA, as expected, has released its Final Proposals for the "H7" price control (5 year) period which runs from January 2022 - December 2026. The CAA is now undertaking a consultation on the proposal to which Heathrow, the airlines that use it, and others will respond. The CAA will consider the feedback it receives during this consultation before making a final decision on the H7 price control, which is expected later this year. The CAA has said that the average maximum price per passenger that airlines will pay Heathrow will fall from £30.19 today to £26.31 in 2026. (Heathrow was allowed an interim increase earlier this year, due to Covid issues). When the effects of inflation are removed, this is equivalent to nearly a 6% reduction every year (ie. down £1.87 in the first year, etc) from today’s level up to 2026. Heathrow has claimed huge losses due to the pandemic, and that it wanted the higher landing charge, to help recovery. But the CAA considers the return of high passenger numbers - that has been faster than anticipated - will bring in sufficient money into Heathrow, for its spending and investment requirements. The higher landing charge is not needed.