Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Gatwick establishes “Growth Board” under Tessa Jowell and Steve Norris to develop benefits from its growth
Gatwick has announced the formation of the new "Gatwick Growth Board" (the GGB) under Co-Chairs Tessa Jowell and Steve Norris. The GGB will "examine the wider economic and social impacts of Gatwick Airport’s future growth and expansion plans on the local area, the South East region, and on the economy of the UK as a whole." Gatwick hopes the GGB will ensure "the benefits of Gatwick expansion are properly distributed across the region and the rest of the UK, such that areas most in need of regeneration benefit appropriately from its plans." Quite how it will do this is not revealed, nor why it is only at this late stage that Gatwick has felt it necessary to try to demonstrate benefit of a 2nd runway for the UK as a whole. The board will have no official powers or authority. Gatwick realises it carries very little air freight, and deals largely with leisure low cost, point to point travel. Most of its flights are to one or other European holiday destination. They hope their new runway would be open by 2025. The GGB is to work for two years, and it will produce "regular reports and studies" for Gatwick, with the first starting this September. These will look at how Gatwick fits with Britain's withdrawal from the EU, employment impacts on the regions from sucking more low cost travel to the south east, and how it can have an impact on the regions. Gatwick must be worried by the public realisation that it contributes l ittle to the UK economy as a whole.
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Heathrow unveils some minimal, largely cosmetic, noise reduction measures to try to reduce runway opposition
Planes landing at Heathrow are being told to delay the lowering of landing gear as part of attempts to cut the amount of plane noise. Pilots are being told not to lower the wheels until about 4.6 miles from the runway, instead of the average of 8 miles now, and this would not pose any safety risk. Planes will thus be slightly less noisy for those from around 8 - 4.5 miles from the runway. Heathrow is trying to find ways - and they are all tiny ways - to give the impression it is cutting plane noise, in its attempts to persuade the government that it can deal with the added noise burden with a new runway and 50% more flights. Heathrow has also said it will reduce the landing charges for the latest, less noisy aircraft, phasing out older noisier planes eventually. It also plans to install 50 more noise monitors around the airport (which, of course, do not in themselves reduce noise at all). Heathrow calls its new package a Blueprint for Noise Reduction, with 10 supposed measures. These include the launch of a "web based tool xPlane for residents to access flight data specific to their locations", again in the hope that measuring the noise and giving residents information, somehow make the noise go away. And Heathrow plans to introduce an unspecified "voluntary Quiet Night Charter" - no details, but no reduction in night flights.
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Heathrow Airport clear winner at the Noise Olympics, for the largest number affected by plane noise!
Heathrow was the clear winner of the Noise Olympics staged by campaign group HACAN in Ravenscourt Park in Hammersmith. The event was a 100 metres race, with 8 runners (representing the 7 European airports which overfly most people plus Gatwick), each wearing t-shirts with the airport name and the number living within the 55 Lden noise contours. Heathrow received its medal, in the form of golden ear-defenders, from the local MP Andy Slaughter. The silver ear-defenders went to Frankfurt and the bronze to Charles De Gaulle. Heathrow won the race because it overflies more people than any other airport in Europe. According to European Commission figures over 725,000 residents are overflown which is 28% of all people in Europe disturbed by aircraft noise. That figure is from 2006, which is the most recent data available, though another estimate was 756,000. However, many people are affected by plane noise outside that contour, making the real numbers even higher. HACAN chair John Stewart said, “This was a fun way of showing that Heathrow is already in a noise league of its own. Residents are very worried what a 3rd runway with an extra 250,000 flights a year will mean.” There are estimates of how many more would be affected with expansion - perhaps another quarter of a million people, but until detailed flight path routes are known, this can only be an estimate.
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Salfords parish council to enlist aviation expert to battle Gatwick Route 4 flight path change
Salfords and Sidlow Parish Council council is to pay up to £1,000 for an aviation expert to help battle "awful" Gatwick flight noise. They have agreed to hire someone to provide guidance on why Gatwick's recent adjustment to Route 4 appears to be causing problems for residents, after receiving reports of "intolerable noise and disturbance". Route 4 was modified 2 years ago to fly slightly further north than before, causing a lot of distress to those newly, and intensively, overflown. The route has now been moved further south, but is narrower than before, causing serious noise problems for the thousands affected. Salfords and Sidlow is one of the areas now worse affected, and they are badly affected - including late at night and in the early morning, with low planes overhead. People who bought their homes a year or two ago, when the areas was relatively quiet, did not anticipate this noise assault. Affected residents will not allow their lives to be ruined and their properties blighted by the introduction of this route using P-RNAV technology, which effectively allows aircraft to fly on a single track with no respite for those below. At the least, there must be period of the day without planes - respite. The most recent adjustment to Route 4 is not permanent and a six-month monitoring period runs until November - people need to send their views to Gatwick, which passes them to the CAA.
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Claims that Heathrow runway delay “costs UK £6 million per day” shown to be massively exaggerated
Claims have been made about how important it is for the government to make a runway decision fast, and how massive amounts of money are being (allegedly !) lost to the UK economy every single day of delay. A new grouping - the "British Infrastructure Group" - BIG - led by Tory MP Grant Shapps suggests the sum is up to £6 million per day". Fact Checker" has looked into this, and how the claims are calculated, and they find them to be very dodgy indeed. It's complicated economics, but at heart they looked at the possible maximum benefits that the Airports Commission said a Heathrow might generate, over 60 YEARS. Then they worked out that, backwards, to a sum per day. There are various assumptions that should, and should not, be made when working out that sort of calculation and assessing possible future values. Their sum of "£6 million per day" depends on Heathrow producing a national benefit of £147 billion over 60 years. But the Airports Commission's own figures show that if the costs of carbon in the carbon capped scenarios reduce the possible national benefit of a Heathrow runway to around (amazingly tiny) just £1.4 billion over 60 years. That, divided up by day, is an insignificant amount (up to £64,000). Full Fact says: "Any precise figure will be uncertain."
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New runway would push up air fares due to carbon emissions, and restrict regional airports – new report
A new report for the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has analysed the Airports Commission’s backing for new runway in relation to carbon emissions, and says the necessary carbon pricing would end low-cost flights by 2050. The Commission was aware that UK aviation is expected to far exceed the cap set for the sector's CO2 emissions (37.5MtCO2) before 2050. Adding another runway only makes the situation far worse, by exacerbating the problem. The only way to keep aviation emissions down, with a new runway, is greatly increased cost of flights, trying to reduce the demand that has been increased by adding capacity. This means a carbon price massively higher than today - at several hundred £s. The report, by Leo Barasi and Leo Murray, say that as well as making flights expensive (perhaps pricing out those on low pay) the addition of a new SE runway means growth at regional airports would have to be restricted to allow expanded London capacity. Dame Julia King, who was on the Airports Commission and is on the Committee on Climate Change, admits that regional airports would need to be restricted in order to allow growth in the south east. There has been far too little assessment and acknowledgement of the CO2 implications of a runway. The government should not rush into approving a runway until this has been fully accepted.
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CAGNE report shows how widespread and unacceptable Gatwick 2nd runway noise would be
Local Gatwick community group, CAGNE (Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions) had produced a new short report on the extent of the noise impact a 2nd Gatwick runway would have. CAGNE says Gatwick’s local communities have been side-lined as the airport has failed to develop a proper strategy to deal with aircraft noise with expansion. A second runway would mean double the number of people impacted by night flights and create 24-hour “noise ghetto from hell.” CAGNE says Gatwick’s expansion proposals contravene Government policy on aircraft noise by failing to incorporate measures which would reduce noise. This is especially unsatisfactory as the Government is likely to make a runway decision, or at least a statement of preference between Heathrow and Gatwick, in early September or in October. The unacceptable noise burden from Heathrow is well known. Gatwick has tried to make out that its noise problem is small by comparison. However, CAGNE shows that Gatwick (with a 2nd runway it would be the size of Heathrow now) plans to use both runways in segregated mode, so both are used all day for both landings and take offs. This does not allow the half day respite from which those under Heathrow flights benefit. Gatwick also plans to continue night flights all night, which Heathrow has been told it cannot do.
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Interview with Nigel Milton – a classic of dangerous, disingenuous Heathrow spin
In an interview with Nigel Milton, Heathrow's Director of External Affairs, by a Slough paper - he reiterates some of the typical spin. The PR is intended to convey the impression (to Theresa May in particular, and her Cabinet) that Heathrow is all set for its 3rd runway; its plans and promises fully cover all that has been asked of it by the Airports Commission and government; that it will henceforth be a really great and considerate neighbour; and that its runway will be the salvation of the nation. The mask slips a bit when Nigel has to admit that: "if our government introduce an act of parliament to rule out a 4th runway [Heathrow] will support that because ultimately that’s the only thing that can stop it." ie. only if barred by law. And "if the government decided to build a third runway it needs to set up a framework, a governance regime ... to hold us to account. ... it needs to have teeth to be able to penalise us and require us to take action - at the moment that isn’t the case.” ie. Heathrow will not regulate itself, but only comply with law. He makes out, without any evidence, that Heathrow freight is "26% of UK exports and imports" (it is far less than that) makes the claim (quite untrue) that "...we are not asking people to choose between the economy and the environment" implying that noise, night flights, NO2, surface access and CO2 problems are solved. They are not.
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Government (Chris Grayling and Sajid Javid) approve expansion of London City airport
The Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, and Communities Secretary, Sajid Javid, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer, Philip Hammond, have announced they are allowing the expansion programme at London City Airport. The plans are for an extended terminal, new aircraft taxiway and parking spaces for planes, which will enable more, larger, noisier planes to use the airport. The government is hoping this is a symbol of Britain "being open for business" and increasing connections with Europe, at a time of great fears about the impact of Brexit. With government fears for the economy, they are trumpeting the expansion as creating "1,600 airport jobs for staff, together with 500 construction jobs" and huge benefits to the economy. All three ministers made extravagant and excited statements about the positive impact of this expansion. Boris Johnson earlier turned it down on grounds of unacceptable noise levels for Londoners. Hacan East, the local campaign, is very concerned indeed about the noise. They say residents will now face a double whammy. Earlier this year, in February, London City concentrated all its flight paths, and now the people under these flight paths face the prospect of more and larger planes.” Cait Hewitt, from the Aviation Environment Federation, said: "It is hard to see how an increase in aircraft and in passengers travelling to and from London City can be compatible with the Mayor’s ambitious plans to tackle air pollution in London."
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Richmond, Wandsworth and Hillingdon council leaders write to Chris Grayling to warn legal action threatened if Heathrow expansion is approved
Three Conservative local authorities - Richmond, Wandsworth and Hillingdon - have written to the Transport Secretary, Chris Grayling, warning that court proceedings will be launched if a Heathrow 3rd runway is approved. The 3 council leaders, Lord True, Ravi Govindia and Ray Puddifoot, say any approval given to Heathrow would create “severe political and social rupture” at a time when unity is needed. It is also undeliverable and unlawful. They are already preparing a “substantial and strong legal challenge” and say “We must also be very clear that we intend to launch a legal challenge against the government in the unfortunate event that it resolves to support Heathrow expansion or to carry out any further investigatory works into these projects,” The reasons for the challenge are that bad air quality around the airport already breaches legal limits, and with a 3rd runway, the extra planes and cars in west London would “blight the lives” of millions of people. The council leaders say, in their letter to Chris Grayling, that the runway “would be an environmental disaster for our communities”. Unfortunately they also urge government to back a 2nd Gatwick runway instead, content to push the misery that they are keen to avoid for their own residents onto others.