Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
PM faces Tory problem if Zac Goldsmith stands as anti-Heathrow candidate in by-election
The Standard reports that Theresa May faces an awkward problem, if she backs a 3rd Heathrow runway, if Zac Goldsmith resigns his Richmond Park seat and causes a by-election. Zac held a private meeting of the Conservative group at Richmond Park where he confirmed he is ready to run as an independent. The group also voted in a secret ballot to support Zac rather than an official Conservative candidate, if one stood for the seat. Twickenham MP, Tania Mathias, who is also fiercely against the runway, agreed to support Zac, even though it is strictly against the party’s rules for an MP to back anyone standing against an official party candidate. For a Conservative not to stand, or to be beater significantly, would be very awkward for Mrs May. It is believed that the runway announcement will be made on Tuesday 25th October. At the Cabinet meeting on 18th October, ministers were allowed to discuss the runway issue for the first time — though critics of a 3rd Heathrow runway, such as Boris Johnson and Justine Greening, were only invited to comment and not to vote. The government was expected to hold a vote in Parliament (Commons, not Lords) within a week or so of the decision, to get the endorsement of MPs for the decision. This is now not going to happen. Zac would need to decide when to resign, for greatest impact.
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Heathrow opponents take inspiration from 5 years of noise protests after 3rd Frankfurt runway
With a decision by government expected shortly, and the likelihood of a Heathrow runway being approved, 3 Heathrow campaigners went to join in one of the massive (almost) weekly demos at Frankfurt airport. Back in October 2011 a 3rd Frankfurt runway was opened. The local residents had not been informed just how much worse the plane noise they suffer would become, with new routes and alterations to old routes. About a million people in the area are affected. Since then they have held hundreds of protests, almost every Monday evening, against this reduction in their quality of life, the noise intrusion they suffer, and the drop in the prices of their homes. The Frankfurt area residents say they will never give up. The Heathrow campaigners said something very similar would happen to noise, with a 3rd Heathrow runway. Speaking to the crowd of many hundreds of protesters in the terminal, John Stewart said: "What you are showing to the airport authorities and to government is that if they build a runway that people don’t want, people will not go away. We will say that we will protest like the people of Frankfurt have protested for 5 years." Neil Keveren, a Harmondsworth resident, said: "When the people of Chiswick, Hammersmith, Ealing and Southall realise they are going to be under a flightpath, I am pretty sure they are going to get the same sort of response at home."
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Tory MPs opposed to 3rd runway warn of chaos in the party if PM opts for Heathrow
The Sunday Times understands up to 60 Conservative MPs are against a 3rd Heathrow runway - which would be the biggest parliamentary rebellion since Theresa May took power. In the summer a Comres poll of 150 MPs showed 20% against the Heathrow runway. That would translate to a lot more than 60 MPs, out of the full 650, even ignoring the SNP and the regions. There may be such an outcry that the party could have to reverse any support for Heathrow, if that decision is made in the next few weeks. Zac warns that the risk of Heathrow plans having to be abandoned should worry its potential investors. The Tory MPs opposing the Heathrow runway say they plan to use every parliamentary tool available to delay the final approval of the runway, if Mrs May declares support for it. There could be a “regret motion" in the House of Lords to show the depth of feeling in Parliament, which would cause damage and increase the chances of a judicial review being successful. The rebel MPs also plan to use 3 consultations expected to be launched if Heathrow gets the go-ahead – on planning approval, air space changes and the local impact of expansion – to increase MP opposition. Dozens of Labour MPs are against the runway, though it is thought that Jeremy Corbyn would not be able to enforce a whipped vote for opposition.
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Greenpeace to join with 4 councils in legal challenge against Heathrow 3rd runway
Greenpeace UK has joined forces with Hillingdon, Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead councils to prepare grounds for a joint legal challenge against Heathrow expansion. More claimants could join the alliance in the coming days as media reports have suggested a final decision has now been delayed until 25th October. Greenpeace and the four local authorities say both Heathrow expansion schemes would be unlawful due to their unrivalled environmental impacts, which include exacerbating illegal levels of air pollution, increasing Europe’s worst aircraft noise footprint and stretching the local transport network beyond breaking point. The councils jointly instructed Harrison Grant Solicitors to prepare their legal strategy last year and Greenpeace will now share costs and bring new environmental expertise to the partnership. The campaigners also worked together back in 2010 to successfully overturn the Brown Government’s backing for a 3rd runway in the High Court. Later that year the scheme was emphatically ruled out by the incoming Cameron Government. Heathrow current expansion scheme is even bigger and has more severe environmental impacts than the 2010 proposal, and will fail the same legal tests. New evidence on the severe health impacts of air and noise pollution make the new scheme far less likely to pass judicial review.
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BBC believes runway decision / announcement not on 18th but on 25th October
The BBC's Kamal Ahmed reports that Theresa May is not going to make an announcement on runways on the 18th October, as many had expected. The decision instead may be on Tuesday 25th October - and the announcement the same day in Parliament. This will be to to allow Cabinet ministers to express their views. "Sources in Whitehall told the BBC that expansion at Heathrow is the clear front runner." The BBC believes Mrs May has made it clear she wants to hear the wide-ranging opinions of colleagues in Cabinet, and they will discuss the issue at tomorrow's meeting. But no final decision is expected. It will then be left to the Economic Affairs (Transport) sub-committee, [ie. runways sub-committee] chaired by Theresa May herself, to make the final choice on whether to back Heathrow or Gatwick - or both with one after the other - as those are the options the government has seemingly limited itself to. Boris Johnson and Justine Greening, in Cabinet, are fiercely against a 3rd Heathrow runway. Senior Treasury officials believe Heathrow is the better option for boosting UK economic growth (though the Airports Commission's own reports show this could be as low as a total of £1.4 billion over all the UK over 60 years, taking all costs into account. That is a vanishingly small figure]. Heathrow has the benefit of fitting in with HS2 for links to the rest of the UK.
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Sunday Times believes Gatwick has been offered “consolation prizes” for not getting runway agreement yet
The Sunday Times believes that Gatwick has been offered various ways in which the airport could be helped, if it is not selected by the government as the site for a runway. The Times has been a firm supporter of a Gatwick runway, against Heathrow, for months - with many articles backing Gatwick's case. The Sunday Times says in private meetings Chris Grayling, the Transport Secretary, and his officials had asked Gatwick what ministers could do as compromise options to assist the airport's growth, even if does not get a runway. This, the say, is an indication that the government is poised to approve a Heathrow 3rd runway. Heathrow apparently were not given any such offer. Theresa May’s cabinet is expected to decide by the end of October where to build a new runway in the southeast of England. Some of the things that might "smooth things over" with Gatwick might be a package of rail and road improvements - or telling Gatwick that while Heathrow could start the process of getting a runway built right away, Gatwick could build a runway within the next decade. An aviation expert commented that Theresa May might lay out a "road map" of different stages for aviation expansion. It is possible that the process of getting consent for a Heathrow runway could take so long that, even if Gatwick started the process years later, it could get a runway completed earlier.
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CPRE branches and local campaign groups consider legal action against Government if Gatwick runway approved
The Sussex and Surrey branches of CPRE (the Campaign to Protect Rural England) have jointly written to the Prime Minister to warn her that a legal challenge is on the cards if the government gives permission for Gatwick to build a 2nd runway. As well as the two CPRE branches the most affected by Gatwick, heritage venues, such as Hever Castle, Kent; Knepp Castle, West Sussex and 16 local action groups, have written to the Theresa May to say they are prepared to fight a decision. They said "the destruction of wildlife, tranquillity, dark night skies and clean air" could not be justified for a new runway. They add that Gatwick expansion is not just about a runway; it comes with huge baggage that would destroy the very landscapes that CPRE and local residents seek to protect and promote for future generations. Gatwick lies in the lee of the North Downs surrounded by three ‘Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty’ which enjoy the same protections as the National Parks. The Chairman of CPRE Sussex said: "We may be smart about our technology but we can’t recreate our countryside, ancient woodland, and heritage. We are all responsible for our legacy; surely we should be leaving behind a better world by preserving our countryside from such destructive developments as a new runway at Gatwick.”
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Stansted will fight if Gatwick & Heathrow both get new runways – as they did not get opportunity to make their case
Amid rumours that the government might be intending to approve runway plans for both Heathrow and Gatwick, rather than just one or other, the owner of Stansted - Manchester Airports Group - says it would launch a legal challenge if that happened. They say the Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies, only fully examined the case for one new runway to be built before 2030. That is what its final report in July 2015 recommended. The Commission was aware that within CO2 constraints, it would be difficult to justify adding a 2nd runway. It said any case for a 2nd new runway would “need to be closely scrutinised in the light of climate-change policy”.However, it concluded two runways might be needed to if air travel demand by 2050 was to be met, and that could be assessed later on. Tim Hawkins, MAG’s corporate affairs director, said that MAG would have to legally challenge because other airports had not been given the opportunity to present their own cases for the second phase of UK airport expansion post-2030. If there were to be two new runways approved, there would need to be a whole new process before government could make that decision. That would also include the loser this time round (Heathrow or Gatwick). Stansted did not put forward a case for a new runway to the Commission in 2012-13, as its single runway was nowhere near full.
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Study for Heathrow on “respite” from plane noise cannot define it or agree on its effective use
The concept of "respite" (meaning giving areas that are over-flown some time periods when they are not over-flown, is being considered as a way to make otherwise unacceptable levels of plane noise - eg. from a new runway - acceptable. The concept works well for the two Heathrow approach paths over London now, with the landing runway switched at 3pm, allowing people almost half a day without the noise. But with 3 runways, one would need to always be in mixed mode, and so people could no longer get such long "respite" periods. Nobody knows what actually constitutes respite, how quiet the quiet periods should be, how long they should last, how often they should be, how predictable and so on. Heathrow set up The Respite Working Group (RWG) in October 2014 to provide advice to the Heathrow Noise Forum on the management and assessment of respite. Heathrow employed Anderson Acoustics to look into respite, to define it and to understand how it might be useful. However, their review concluded that: There is currently no clear, consistent or universally accepted definition of respite. What the community values as respite is not fully understood. There is currently no single acoustic metric that can adequately describe respite. There is no universal formula for the successful implementation of an effective respite strategy and operational design for respite needs to consider operational conditions at an airport. And there is currently insufficient information on the benefits of respite to health and on the economic value of the effects of respite.
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British Airways CEO confirms his airline will not pay exorbitant Heathrow fees to build new runway scheme
Alex Cruz, the chief executive of British Airways, (which is part of IAG) said the airline would oppose any move by its main airport, Heathrow, to raise its charges if it gets permission to build a 3rd runway. Mr Cruz said that although there was an “overwhelming case” for expanding capacity at Heathrow, this should not be at such high cost, and “Any notion that the cost will be borne by airlines is not acceptable." He said that though IAG (BA produced about 75% of IAG's 2015 profit), would not leave Heathrow altogether if costs were too high, it would look at expanding operations elsewhere. IAG also has hubs in Dublin and Shannon for Aer Lingus, in Madrid for Iberia, and Barcelona for Vueling - so it has lots of possible options. IAG does not want to pay in advance for the future runway and terminal, the extravagant design of which it has described as "gold plated." Alex Cruz, like IAG boss Willie Walsh, was critical of a 2nd Gatwick runway, saying there was “no business case” for it, and “There is simply not sufficient demand from either customers or airlines....Experience shows that the majority of long-haul airlines that start operations at Gatwick either quit and leave London altogether or go to Heathrow as soon as possible.” Mr Cruz said that Heathrow’s shareholders should bear the cost of building a 3rd runway from the start. “Heathrow’s investors do pretty well out of its monopoly hub status."