Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Bristol Airport expansion decision to be taken to High Court by local campaigners, BAAN
On 2nd February the Planning Inspectorate allowed the appeal by Bristol airport against refusal by North Somerset Council, for the airport's expansion plans - that would allow it to increase its capacity from 10 million to 12 million passengers per year. Now the campaign group, Bristol Airport Action Network (BAAN), is taking the battle to the High Court. They have raised more than £20,000 to appeal the Planning Inspectorate's decision. BAAN believes the expansion will be damaging for local people and the environment, citing a rise in road traffic, increased noise and air pollution and an "inevitable rise in carbon emissions". The Planning Inspectorate said at the time it recognised the "major disappointment" campaigners would have, but the considered economic benefits would outweigh the harm to green belt land. But North Somerset Council will not pursue a legal challenge to the ruling, fearing they would lose and there would be an unacceptable cost to ratepayers. A legal challenge through the High Court can only be successful if the inspectors can be shown to have erred in law, and currently the UK has "no policy which seeks to limit airport expansion" nationally, or on aviation carbon.
Click here to view full story...
Proposed relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport poses ‘significant hazard to human health’
There have been several studies, in recent years, confirming that aircraft noise at night can have negative health impacts, especially on cardiovascular health. For good health, adults need at least 7 hours of good sleep each night - that requires a period that long without plane noise overhead. Now the Irish Government proposes to allow relaxation of limits on night-time flights at Dublin Airport. This would pose “a significant hazard to human health” for people living in the area. Currently there is a ban on planes using Dublin's new north runway between 11pm and 7am, but the intention is to reduce this to midnight to 7am. ie. from 8 hours to 6 hours without noise. The proposal is also to increase the number of flights overall from 65 per night, between 11p. and 7am, and replace this number with a noise quota scheme, based on the theoretical noise level of planes. All this would increase the level of noise at night, and prevent people living near the airport or under flight paths from getting good quality sleep - with a high probability of negatively impacting their health and well-being.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow traffic struggles at 50% of pre-pandemic levels as fuel costs and the outbreak of the Ukraine war add to its problems
Low levels of overseas business travel and tourists coming to Britain have kept Heathrow's passenger numbers at just over half of pre-pandemic volumes. Only 2.9 million people went through Heathrow in February, compared to 5.4 million in February 2019 - the month before the World Health Organisation declared the Covid-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. This was despite the US lifting a 20-month international travel ban on non-US residents and citizens flying to the country, which lead to a surge in travel between the UK and the US. But traveller numbers on Middle Eastern and EU routes rose by over 600%, while the cargo tonnage rose to within 7% of its pre-pandemic levels. Flight bookings continue to be significantly reduced by the continuing strict testing and quarantine rules in multiple countries. Business travel is significantly lower, as companies have cut back expenditure on flights and largely turned to videoconferencing meetings and hybrid working practices. The cost of jet fuel has risen sharply, due to the war in Ukraine. There is also concern about new Covid variants, and some American travellers worry about the behaviour of Russia in Ukraine.
Click here to view full story...
The cancelling of expansion plans by Leeds Bradford may make other airports less confident about theirs
Leeds Bradford Airport has withdrawn its plans to build a new terminal. That expansion would have allowed a higher number of flights and passenger, as well as carbon emissions. The airport was not keen on having to defend a planning inquiry. Now it is likely that the confidence of other UK airports in their expansion plans may have been reduced. The Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) emphasised the potential impact of the decision, saying: "There are mounting uncertainties for airports both about when passenger demand will return and about the conclusions that decision-makers will reach about the measures necessary to deliver net zero aviation. This is an important victory for local campaigners. While the airport claims it can still grow using its existing permissions, the reality – as the airport itself previously argued - is that it will struggle to launch new routes without the change it was seeking to its operating hours." New Economic Foundation senior researcher Alex Chapman said that to prevent "climate breakdown", society needs to "start making different choices and the era of corporate greenwash needs to end".
Click here to view full story...
Leeds Bradford Airport has scrapped plans to build a huge new terminal
Leeds Bradford Airport has scrapped plans to build a new £150m terminal, saying they had withdrawn proposals because of "excessive delays" and the decision to hold a public inquiry into the development." That may be because they realise there are very strong reasons, especially on climate, why the terminal should not be built, and they realises there is a likelihood they might lose, wasting money. The expansion plans were first announced in 2020, with a planning application approved by the council in March 2021, despite objections by campaigners and local MPs. There was going to be a public inquiry. The overall impact of the new terminal would have been more planes, more passengers, more carbon emissions. The airport says it will now turn its attention to extending the existing terminal, plans for which were approved by Leeds City Council in 2019. Local opponents, GALBA (Goup for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport) are delighted; they have fought a remarkable, dogged and now successful campaign against the expansion for several years. They said it was a "victory for climate and communities". The higher aviation CO2 emissions would have made it "impossible" for Leeds city to meet its carbon target.
Click here to view full story...
Gatwick hopes for a better 2022 – it lost £370.6 million in 2021 and £465.5 million in 2020
Gatwick lost just over £1m per day on average - £370.6 million - during 2021. In 2020 it lost about £1.275m per day - about £465.5 million. It had about 10.2 million passengers in 2020, and about 6.3 million in 2021 (mainly in the summer months), compared to 46.6 million in 2019. EasyJet has taken up more Gatwick take-off and landing slots. Cost savings were achieved by moving all airlines and travellers to the smaller North Terminal during months with the tightest Covid travel restrictions. The airport will reopen its South Terminal on March 27 as airlines ramp up their schedules with more passengers. British Airways is restarting its short-haul programme with 18 aircraft on 35 routes. Wizz Air and Vueling are setting up smaller bases. The biggest airline at Gatwick, easyJet, will provide even more capacity than before the coronavirus pandemic, with 79 aircraft covering 120 routes. The airport's CEO Stewart Wingate, hoped 2022 would see a big rise in passengers "providing bureaucracy is reduced."
Click here to view full story...
SNP accused of ‘greenwashing backroom deal’ over higher Scottish aviation CO2 if Heathrow expands
Documents have shown that the Scottish Government has adopted aviation industry claims that expanding Heathrow would not lead to increased CO2 emissions from Scotland. Logically, if there are many more flights between Scottish airports and Heathrow, that would increase Scotland's aviation carbon emissions. A memo prepared for Scotland's First Minister last October, obtained by The Ferret, claims that “there is nothing to suggest that LHR [Heathrow] expansion will have a negative impact on emissions attributable to Scotland”. Environmental groups say it is “worrying to see how closely aligned the Scottish Government appears to be with the aviation lobby,” and argue that the document “casts doubt on how serious the Scottish Government is about reaching its climate targets”. Claims that emissions would not rise are based on the aviation sector's over-optimistic hopes that remarkable novel fuels will soon be produced (or electric planes will fly using zero-carbon electricity ....) that will mean flying will no longer emit so much carbon. The AEF said the claim that Scotland’s emissions wouldn’t increase as a result of a third runway “suggest[s] some very odd carbon accounting somewhere along the line”.
Click here to view full story...
UK airport expansion plans mean higher aviation emissions – making a mockery of “net zero” targets
The carbon emissions from UK aviation according to the Climate Change Committee (CCC), were 39.3 MtCO2 in 2018. They were a little higher in 2019, making up 8% of total UK emissions. The CCC advised the government that for its Sixth Carbon Budget (2033 - 37) the carbon emissions of the UK should fall by 63% from their 2019 level. And "net zero" by 2050. The CCC has advised the government that there should be "no net airport expansion". But the government has ignored this advice, and recently government inspectors have allowed expansion plans at Stansted and Bristol. Southampton and Leeds Bradford airports are trying to get expansion approval. So instead of making every effort to cut UK aviation emissions, things are going in the opposite direction. Stansted Airport Watch says that, taken together, the airport expansion proposals that have been approved in the past year, and those in the pipeline, will increase UK airport capacity to over 500 million passengers per annum. This compares to 297 million passengers in 2019, before Covid, and 292 million in 2018. "With so much extra airport capacity in the pipeline, there will be no prospect of aviation achieving the Government's objective of net zero emissions by 2050."
Click here to view full story...
“Greenwash Earth” gives Luton airport its “Greenwasher of the Month” award for its expansion carbon claims
There are a lot of contenders for a "greenwashing" award, with many in the aviation sector. Now the group, Greenwash Earth has awarded its gong of "Greenwasher of the Month" to Luton airport for its crazy claims. They won the award for claiming they can develop a "sustainable" airport. The term "sustainable" used to mean something, when first introduced 20 or so years ago - but has now been debased into meaninglessness. Luton claims increasing the capacity of the airport to 32 million passengers per year, by building a new terminal and making the best use of the existing runway, will somehow be "sustainable" and not emit any more carbon. It is nonsensical to pretend that more flights will not raise carbon emissions, and make it harder for the UK to meet climate targets, or for the earth not to heat more than 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Greenwash Earth say there is similar nonsense being promoted by other airports, such as Bristol and Heathrow.
Click here to view full story...
Reply to a Parliamentary Question shows during 18 months of Covid, around 15,000 “ghost flights” flew from UK airports
It has been difficult to obtain the data, from airlines, of the number of flights they operate that have no passengers, or are under 10% capacity. These are termed ghost flights, and are a terrible unnecessary source of carbon emissions. Now MP Alex Sobel has asked a parliamentary question, replied to by Robert Courts (Aviation Minister), giving some recent date for the UK. The responses, through the DfT and CAA, was that almost 15,000 “ghost flights” took off from the 32 UK airports between March 2020 and September 2021. Heathrow was top, with 4,910 ghost flights in that 18 month period. Manchester and Gatwick were the next highest. There were an average of 760 ghost flights a month over the period, although the data covered only international departure and not domestic flights. During the pandemic the slot use rules that had required 80% of slots to be used were completely suspended. Airlines did not have to operate flights to retain the slots, but nonetheless flew about 14,470 ghost flights. This was partly as demand for flying was so low, planes flew with just a handful of passengers.