Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Schiphol flights to be limited to 11% below 2019 levels to cut noise
After pressure from communities in the Netherlands, the Dutch Parliament has said Schiphol must reduce its flights from 500,000 a year to a maximum of 440,000 by 2023 in order to cut the noise experienced by impacted communities. That cut is 11% less than in 2019 (about 510,000). It is understand from the Dutch aviation campaigners that the mix in the current Dutch Parliament helped. The Netherlands has proportional representation and enough small parties backed the proposals to get it agreed. The decision follows a move by Schiphol itself, in which the Dutch state is the majority shareholder, to impose a cap on the number passengers it can carry this summer - although that was due to staffing shortages. Part of the reason is awareness fo the carbon emissions. Airlines, predictably, are not happy. Greenpeace, which had lobbied for traffic at Schiphol to be reduced, hailed the decision as a "historic breakthrough". This might be the first time a major airport has been asked to reduce flight numbers.
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Luton Rising apparently sinking as auditors resign
Local group, Ladacan, has found that the 2021 accounts of Luton Rising (the company that owns the airport, and is owned by Luton Council) reveal serious problems. The statement by company secretary Mark Turner that PricewaterhouseCoopers have resigned as auditors does not inspire confidence, in a company now burdened by eye-watering debt. The resignation follows a serious disagreement between the auditors and the directors over the valuation of the Airport. PricewaterhouseCoopers’ independent assessment put it in the range £835 to £1,300m, and they disagreed with the Luton Rising valuation of £1,488m. This is due to disagreement over the discount rate used in calculating the future value of current investment, and also about the impact of concession earnings. Luton Borough Council’s own auditors, Ernst and Young, have also been raising serious concerns during their efforts to sign off the Council’s own accounts. The valuation matters because of concerns about whether the money invested in the Luton DART light railway, under construction, will be recouped. There are concerns about whether Luton Council will have to provide yet more public money to the airport, and the lack of proper openness of the airport-council link.
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Heathrow hopes 54.4 million passengers, or 67% of 2019 levels, will now use the airport this year,
Heathrow is now forecasting that 54.4 million passengers, or 67% of 2019 levels, will now use the airport this year, up from the 52.8 million it predicted in April. Heathrow expects its adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) to rise 257% from 2021 to £1.37bn. Revenue is forecast to double to £2.6bn. In general, staffing and energy costs are about 45% of an airport’s operating costs, and Heathrow has said higher energy prices will drive up its operating costs by almost half to £1.2bn this year. In January it forecast its underlying earnings would be £1.04 billion. But the airport is aware of many factors that may reduce air passenger demand this year, including the cost of jet fuel, the cost of living crisis, the UK inflation rate (currently over 9%), the war in Ukraine and Covid perhaps returning. Airlines continue to have staffing problems, and now BA staff are intending to strike. Heathrow's finances remain very fragile.
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Gatwick slightly reduces summer capacity due to problems with insufficient staff
Gatwick will reduce its summer capacity to ward off potential chaos, after there were dozens of last-minute cancellations for holidaymakers over the platinum jubilee and half-term holiday. It will limit the number of daily take-offs and landings to 850 in August – about 50 more than the average in early June, but more than 10% below its pre-pandemic maximum. EasyJet operates more than half of Gatwick slots, and will have to review its plans.The DfT and the CAA told the industry to ensure that flights on sale were “deliverable”, and called on airport chief executives to set up working groups with airlines and ground handlers to minimise the risk of summer disruption. A review by the airport found a number of companies would still have a severe lack of staff resources over summer, which would probably leadt o delays and cancellations. Schiphol, another large European base for easyJet, was expected to make a similar announcement, limiting total daily passenger numbers this summer. The airline sector got rid of thousands of staff due to Covid, many of whom have found preferable jobs elsewhere.
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New smaller Gatwick consultation, largely on road changes, before its 2023 DCO application
In autumn 2021 Gatwick held a consultation on its plans to use its northern, standby, runway as a full runway, for routine use for departing aircraft (not arriving) – alongside the main runway. The expansion plan means having to reposition the centre line of the standby runway, moving it 12 metres north. The 2021 consultation was not the Development Consent Order (DCO) application itself. Gatwick hopes to get consent to start the first stages of the runway process by 2023. It is now consulting again, (start 14th June - ends 27th July) on a few aspects of its plans, not the whole thing. This new consultation is largely about road changes, and Gatwick says some of the proposals have been amended, due to responses to the earlier consultation. Gatwick plans a significant redesign of the original plan for the North Terminal junction; the addition of a new lane westbound over the Brighton main rail line; and the addition of a third lane westbound to the A23 approaching Longbridge roundabout. There are also some proposals relating to car parking (slightly fewer than before); more hotel rooms than previously; and a new office block. Gatwick hopes the new runway could be operational by summer 2029.
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Aviation campaigners from across Britain call on government to stop all airport expansion plans
GALBA (the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport) and 24 other airport campaign groups across the country send an open letter to Robert Courts, Minister for Aviation, and Michael Gove, Minister for Levelling Up and Communities, calling on ministers to re-think their policy of supporting an unconstrained growth of flying. The campaigners want the government to immediately stop all plans to expand airports to help the UK cut its greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible and as quickly as possible. The letter echoes advice from independent experts and national environmental organisations. Due to global heating, we are at an unprecedentedly dangerous moment in human history. Every sector of the economy must halve its greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 if we are to preserve a liveable planet for future generations. They urge the government to stop supporting unconstrained aviation growth and airport expansion plans, until aviation emissions are actually falling and wider emissions are on track to keep global heating to no more than 1.5C.
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Bristol Airport expansion case highlights loopholes in national climate policy,
The Bristol the campaign group against the airport's expansion, BAAN, has successfully secured an appeal hearing at the High Court, this coming autumn, where a judge will consider whether a decision to allow the airport to expand was lawful. Lawyers bringing the case want to emphasise that the cumulative climate impact of many airport expansions across the country is not being considered properly. Currently the UK has no airports policy, and no proper policy on aviation carbon emissions. As well as this omission, planning law looks at the emissions from the airport activities on the ground, ignoring the CO2 emissions from the planes, and flights facilitated by an enlarged airport. Climate and carbon issues are set at a national level, enabling the Planning Inspectorate (PI) to ignore impact of specific airports. If BAAN is successful the airport's planning permission would no longer be valid. The PI would need to take the judge’s ruling into account when making the decision again and possibly re-run parts of last year’s inquiry. That would set a precedent.
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Anglesey to Cardiff PSO route scrapped by Welsh government – with the money going to public transport
The Welsh Government has scrapped its North to South Wales funded, PSO funded, air service, between Anglesey and Cardiff, saying it will instead use the annual £2.9m public subsidy to improve integrated public transport. The route had been suspended since March 2020 and will not be re-started. The Welsh Government said pre-Covid some 77% of people using route did so for work, but that a shift to hybrid and home-working has cut demand. There is far less demand for business flying. Instead the money saved from running the service will be used to improve public transport in north Wales. This will benefit more people and help reach the Welsh net zero target by 2050. The decision follows an independent study commissioned by the Welsh Government into the carbon impact of the service on the environment. It said this shows the service had a more negative impact on the environment than any other form of travel between Anglesey and Cardiff. Often travel by rail was actually faster, door to door, than by plane.
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Gatwick to start new 6 week consultation, on its expansion plans, on 14th June
Gatwick airport says it will start a new statutory public consultation into its plans to turn its northern, standby runway into a full runway for departing flights. The 6-week consultation will run from 14th June to 27th July. The airport says the consultation will also have updates, including on the highway design changes, from the Autumn 2021 consultation, based on responses received. Full details of the revised plans for the roads around the airport will be published at the start of the consultation. There are changes to the plans for the North Terminal junction, and additional road lanes in two places. The main expansion proposal is to reposition the centre line of the northern runway by 12 metres, so planes can use both runways at the same time (though only departures from the northern runway). There are the usual claims about jobs and economic benefits ... The only mentions of the carbon emissions are how, magically, more flights are going to help the airport "meet its goal of zero airport emissions before 2040." Amazing. [That, of course, excludes the 10 million extra annual passengers]. They hope the runway could be operational by summer 2029.PRESS RELEASE: London Gatwick
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Government policy document “Flightpath to the Future” – hand in glove with aviation industry, for more growth
The UK government has published a new statement on aviation, called "Flightpath to the future: a strategic framework for the aviation sector" - medium-term strategic framework for the UK aviation sector. It is a 10-point plan that "supports the Department for Transport’s vision for a modern, innovative and efficient sector over the next 10 years." The DfT wants the sector to be "successful." The plan is focused on growing a "sustainable" sector; it wants airport growth "within our strict environmental criteria." (sic). It wants to help the consumer by cutting ticket prices. Nowhere is there any substantive ambition to reduce carbon emissions, other than aspirations to deliver "on our aspiration for zero emission flights across the UK this decade. We will also seek to deliver our ambition for 10% SAF to be blended into the UK fuel mix by 2030". It demonstrates how closely the DfT and the aviation industry are aligned. There is nothing concrete on noise. It is far more interested in the convenience of air passengers, the financial success of the sector, and numbers of jobs, than environmental impacts.