Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Some possible changes at Heathrow, to persuade ever more passengers to use it
People already badly affected by Heathrow are concerned about what might happen, with new Saudi ownership, after Ferrovial. The Saudi-backed consortium is poised to seize control of the airport, but it is far from a done deal. However, plans are already underway that could have ramifications for those living nearby. According to sources close to the bid, they have a multi-pronged strategy to broadly increase the number of passengers, even without — for the foreseeable future, at least — the construction of a third runway. Updating Heathrow’s technology is key in the strategy, with things like scrapping airline-specific check-in desks. There could be an App to get passengers to the shortest queue to drop off their luggage. Luggage tags could also be scrapped in favour of computer chips or QR codes linked to passenger booking information. And other changes. The thinking is that if the new owners can improve life for passengers, making it less stressful and decreasing waiting times, airlines will be able to persuade more people to fly. And more passengers mean more revenue for Heathrow, which currently gets £26.77 per person from its airline customers.
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Tory ministers block £30m cash that could help Labour mayor reopen Doncaster Sheffield airport
Conservative Ministers have blocked £30 million in funding that could help Oliver Coppard, South Yorkshire’s Labour Metro Mayor, re-open Doncaster Sheffield airport. Local Labour leaders have been working to revive the airport, which closed in November 2022. They hoped to use a £30 million cash pot - originally earmarked in 2022 for a rail link to the airport before it closed - to help pay for building work at the site. But Tory Transport Secretary Mark Harper has refused to let them re-route the cash - which will likely go unspent within the 5 year time limit. Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA) had domestic flights to London and low-cost airlines taking holidaymakers to European destinations, therefore taking money out of the local economy. When it closed, owners Peel Group said it was not “commercially viable” - despite Mr Coppard and Doncaster Council offering to underwrite operations for a year while a new airport operator could be found. Peel still own it.
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More Heathrow shareholders plan to sell stakes alongside Ferrovial
Ferrovial agreed to sell its 25% stake in Heathrow in November for £2.4bn to French private equity company Ardian (15%) and the Saudi Public Investment Fund (10%). Now 3 other Heathrow shareholders that together own 35% of the airport, have said they want to sell out too, as part of £2.4bn Ferrovial deal agreed. It has been suggested, by someone in the know, that Canadian pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), Singapore sovereign wealth fund GIC and the UK’s Universities Superannuation Scheme all intend to exit. So with 25% and 35%, that is 60% of Heathrow's ownership. As part of the Ferrovial deal, the airport’s other shareholders were given the option to sell their own stakes at the same valuation, with the Saudis and Ardian offered first refusal. This could be a problem for the Ferrovial sale, and the £2.4bn deal could collapse if all the shareholders cannot find buyers. Ferrovial said it was a “condition” of the transaction that the “tagged shares” were also sold. Neither Ardian nor the Saudis are compelled to buy the new shares on offer. The Saudis don't want more than 10%. They might be able to find a 3rd investor to come in and buy the 35%.
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GIP, owner of Gatwick and Edinburgh airports, sold to US BlackRock asset management
Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), which owns about £79bn of companies including Gatwick airport and the Suez wastewater group, has been sold to the US investment firm BlackRock in a $12.5bn deal. The takeover will make BlackRock the world’s 2nd-largest infrastructure investor, behind Australia’s Macquarie group. GIP was created in 2006, and has bought crumbling assets in the energy, transport and water industries, before fixing them and selling them on at a good profit. It now owns 40 companies generating more than $75bn in annual revenues. In the UK, its portfolio includes Gatwick, where it is a minority shareholder behind Vinci; it owns Edinburgh airport, bought in 2012; a stake in Peel Ports, which owns seven ports, and Hornsea 1, the project to build the world’s largest offshore windfarm in the North Sea. GIP bought City airport for £760m in 2006, and sold it to a Canadian-led consortium for £2bn in 2016. GIP’s bosses will now run BlackRock’s enlarged infrastructure business. BlackRock hopes to capitalise on a global acceleration in government infrastructure spending, which it hopes will boost their domestic economies.
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Key critic of Farnborough airport silenced by an ASBI, while the airport submits expansion plans
For four years, Colin Shearn, a 62-year-old retired corporate executive, led the Farnborough Noise Group, a watchdog for locals worried about the operations of Farnborough airport, the UK’s busiest private jet airfield. Then, one day in August, police came knocking at his door. They claimed he had conducted an “aggressive and relentless campaign against Farnborough airport” and he was accused of “bombarding” the airport and relevant authorities “with endless questions about air traffic”, while “adopting a belligerent and aggressive style, distorting or misrepresenting a point of view to suit his agenda”. He was issued with an "antisocial behaviour injunction (asbi)" – the successor to the asbo. He was ordered to stop “causing any harassment, alarm or distress, nuisance or annoyance to any person” in Surrey or Hampshire, or face jail or a fine, or both. Just after he was silenced, Farnborough announced that it planned to double weekend flights. Its latest planning application, now submitted to Rushmoor borough council, gives the airport a ceiling of 70,000 flights a year, including 19,000 at weekends, and allows for heavier aircraft to be used.
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Belgian State to pay €6 million plus €20,000 daily fines for misuse of Brussels Airport runway
In yet another development over the never-ending problem of noise pollution around Brussels Airport, the Belgian State has been found guilty of misusing one of the airport’s runways, leading to unnecessary nuisance for the residents of the neighbouring municipalities. According to international standards, Runway 01 at Brussels Airport, which is shorter than others, under specific weather conditions, but a court found that the state allows its use on a regular basis, leading to increased noise around the airport. Thus, 1,400 residents from some neighbouring municipalities have been awarded €6 million in damages, while the State must also pay €20,000 daily fines until the situation is resolved. Earlier this year, Belgian newspaper De Standaard revealed that the State has been paying over €25 million to residents around Brussels Airport in complaints over noise pollution dating back to 2020. Research published recently in Environment International indicates that people living near airports may be slightly more susceptible to heart attacks and related issues, with men aged over 65 worst hit, especially by night flights.
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Changes to Gatwick DCO in November, since the original application
The planning changes at Gatwick, converting the emergency runway for routine take-offs, is an attempt to "sneak" a second runway through the back door. Critics argue that the timing of Gatwick Airport's proposed changes to its expansion plans could result in people who have already commented on the plans mistakenly thinking their feedback still stands, even though the plans have now changed. Gatwick's expansion plans, to take the airport the size of Heathrow currently, are being examined by PINS, the Planning Inspectorate. Their examination may conclude in June 2024. Local group, CAGNE, says there are now some changes to the Gatwick expansion plans that were not in the original consultation. They say there will be a large increase in lorry movements due to replacing an incinerator with a waste sorting plant, not included in the Development Consent Order, traffic modelling or air quality, an incinerator that at the time of obtaining planning permission was meant to heat the north terminal. PINS needs to decide if the changes can be made to the application and included in the examination. Comments for the examination need to be submitted by 21st January 2024.
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Luton expansion opposed by Hertfordshire County Council – NO conditions could make it acceptable
Hertfordshire County councillors say they are "vehemently opposed" to plans to increase passenger numbers at Luton Airport – and that NO conditions could make it acceptable. Luton Rising – the owners of the airport – have applied to increase the annual number of air passengers from 19m to 32m a year. The application is currently being examined by the Planning Inspectorate, PINS, as a ‘National Significant Infrastructure Project’. At a council meeting on 12th December, a motion backed by all political parties, pointed to the impact the expansion would have on traffic, on the environment and on noise. It called on PINS to recommend that the application is refused. Due to negative transport, environment and noise impacts, the expansion should be opposed, and was "difficult, if not impossible" to see any planning conditions that would make it ‘acceptable’. One councillor said: “We are in the middle of a climate emergency ... we have got to invest in transport that does not destroy the planet. Aircraft are one of the worst polluting forms of transport there are and we must seek to reduce it and not increase it.”
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Heathrow considering smaller ways to increase flights, rather than a 3rd runway
Heathrow is exploring options for expansion that would prioritise smaller improvements before considering if it could go for a 3rd runway. New Chief Executive, Thomas Woldbye, who joined in October, has apparently launched an internal review into the options to increase its capacity. No decisions have yet been made. One option under consideration is a new plan to initially focus on easier and cheaper improvements within the airport boundary, as there are serious concerns about the feasibility of a 3rd runway. The world has moved on since Heathrow got consent for a new runway, with travel demand altered since Covid, and a different political and regulatory environment, as well as far higher construction and financing costs than before. The cost estimate was £24 billion in 2019. Heathrow is also in the middle of a change in ownership, as Ferrovial agreed to sell their 25% stake to a consortium lead by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund (PIF). One major problem for a 3rd runway is having to put a section of the M25 into a tunnel (very costly) and demolishing local homes. The Climate Change Committee says there should be no airport expansion, unless the sector has a way to genuinely cut CO2 emissions.
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Saudi Arabia likely to take control of Heathrow
Saudi Arabia is likely to seize majority control of Heathrow as several shareholders are on the verge of accepting a lucrative offer from a consortium led by Saudi Arabia. Its Public Investment Fund (PIF) and investment firm Ardian, in which Saudi Arabia is an investor, struck a deal to buy Ferrovial’s 25% stake last month for £2.4 billion. Now, at least one other shareholder is close to selling, while other investors are expected to follow suit, tempted by what is seen as an unusually high price from the Saudis. Under Heathrow’s shareholder agreement, the other shareholders have the right to make the Saudi consortium buy their shares at the same valuation as the Ferrovial deal - which values Heathrow at £9.6 billion. This is more than double the £4.5 billion implied value of the airport’s equity last time a big stake was sold in 2013, to USS. If the smaller Heathrow shareholders sell their share to the PIF Saudi consortium,it could mean that it holds almost 60% of Heathrow, with the rest remaining with sovereign wealth funds of China, Qatar and Singapore, which might opt to hold onto their stakes.