Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Gatwick “Dear neighbour” letter to all households – inviting support for runway – play “spot the omissions” with it!
Gatwick airport, as part of its PR push for its 2nd runway, has written to thousands of local households in its surrounding area, with virtually everyone for miles around getting the letter. Gatwick is hoping people will respond to the Airports Commission consultation (deadline 3rd February) to back their runway. The letter can be found here. Several residents have already expressed their anger at receiving it, and at the failure of Gatwick to take any real account of the extent of the local opposition. Gatwick does not find it convenient to take much note of the fury about aircraft noise from new flight paths, or of very real and serious concerns about the horrific impact of a new runway on a huge area of Sussex, as well as of Surrey and Kent. You may like to go through the letter, entertaining youself with trying to spot the deliberate omissions, the deliberate partial truths, and the deliberate glossings-over. It is too full of them to list in this summary. But to save time, you might prefer to see the annotated version below, setting out some of the failings and distortions of the letter.
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Public invited to Gatwick drop-in session with Airports Commission 6 – 8pm on Tues 16th December in Crawley
On Tuesday 16th December, the Airports Commission will be holding its second full public discussion day on airport runway proposals, about Gatwick. The first was about Heathrow, on 3rd December. The Commission has now announced there will be a public drop-in session, available to anyone who wishes to attend, from 6 - 8pm on Tuesday 16th. There is no need to have a ticket. The Commission says the purpose of this drop in session is for Commission staff to hear first-hand from people to be affected locally. Commission staff will be available to answer questions, and help people find the information they need in order to respond to the Airports Commission runway consultation, that closes on 3rd February. The main meeting during the day is by ticket only, as capacity is limited and there has been huge demand. There are no more tickets available. However, the Commission will be publishing a full transcript on their website so those unable to attend can read what was said. But everyone is invited to attend the 6 - 8pm session at the Arora Hotel, Crawley.
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Manchester airport hope its first direct flight to Hong Kong will bring business and tourism boost
There is now a new direct Cathay Pacific flight from Manchester to China (Hong Kong), avoiding the need to hub via Heathrow, or any other European airport. This makes Manchester the first airport outside London to offer a non-stop direct route to China - which may be a boost to the region’s economy. There will be 4 flights per week. The airport hopes rich Chinese visitors - as well as business people - will come direct to Manchester, rather than all going to London. Manchester's "Airport City" has had key investment from the Beijing Construction and Engineering Group. It has taken Charlie Cornish, CEO of Manchester Airports Group, 3 years to secure the link. Mr Cornish has been appealed to the Airports Commission to ensure the country’s future aviation needs are met by a ‘network of regional airports’ - rather than money ploughed solely into Gatwick and Heathrow. The route will be operated by a Boeing 777-300ER, which can carry 300 passengers. From Hong Kong, passengers can connect to 22 cities in mainland China. As they have done successfully from flights from Heathrow for decades - without more direct city links. The UK has always had good links to Hong Kong, for historical reasons.
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Fears of local residents as Fiumicino Rome airport plans to add another two runways
Fiumicino airport is the main airport for Rome, and the largest in Italy. It has around 34 million passenger per year now, and 3 runways (4th not often in use). It plans to build two more runways by 2044 (and four new terminals) and grow its number of passengers to 100 million per year. Fiumicino airport is located near the coast, and the land where runways are planned is close to the state nature reserve for the Roman coast. There is also an important neolithic site, with the first evidence of use of the horse in Europe. The local community group, Comitato Fuoripista, oppose the doubling in size of the airport, with the predictable environmental consequences. It is not clear that doubling the airport's size can be justified economically. Now residents are alarmed that there has been drilling in the area, already prone to subsidence and flooding, and that this is for runway plans. The authorities claim the drilling, done without the proper consents from the local authority, is for normal monitoring. The Benetton family have a 95% stake in Airports of Rome, (ADR) that owns Fiumicino airport.
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NATS drops High Court action to prevent Gatwick awarding DFS its tower services
UK-based air traffic control business NATS has dropped its action in the High Court to block Gatwick from concluding a deal with German rival DFS to provide air traffic services at the airport till 2025. Gatwick will be the largest UK airport to have its immediate airspace up to 4,000 feet controlled by a a foreign provider. It was announced in July that DFS had beaten NATS to get the contract. On 2 October NATS was granted an injunction after a judge supported what the business insisted were legitimate concerns over the way the contract was awarded. NATS said Gatwick had failed to provide full information. But Gatwick has always defended its decision which followed an ‘extensive’ tender process, and that the proposal submitted by DFS was considered superior. NATS now say they have seen details of the tender process that were not previously freely available, and have therefore reached a settlement before trial. DFS will cover air traffic and approach services below 4,000 feet around the airport, currently provided by NATS from October 2015. NATS will retain operations for all air navigation services above 4,000 feet, from its base in Swanwick.
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“Gatwick Obviously Not” asks all Wealden councillors if they back East Sussex County Council’s support for Gatwick runway
On 24th November, Kent County Council withdrew its backing for a 2nd Gatwick runway. At present both West Sussex and East Sussex County Councils support a new Gatwick runway. However, it is now understood that East Sussex County Council (ESCC) is starting to look wobbly on this commitment. Kent withdrew support largely due to the unacceptable noise burden on a large number of its residents, and the same arguments apply for the Sussex councils. Gatwick Obviously Not (GON), representing many areas to the east of Gatwick, do not believe East Sussex District Councils support their County Council. GON has written to all 54 of the councillors in Wealdon District, that is now badly affected by over-flying, to ask their view on ESCC's backing for Gatwick, and their view on the "unilateral stance taken by Cllr Simmons of ESCC to push through support for the 2nd runway under delegated powers" (found out by an FoI request). GON are also asking their membership to email their Wealden councillors, to ask their views on the runway issue, bearing in mind the change of heart at Kent County Council.
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Heathrow gets award as “Green Business of the Year” from a West London group that it sponsors
Awards ceremonies and the process of winning awards is an amazing business. Almost anything can get an award of some sort, especially if you are one of the sponsors of the award. If you want to think of any one place in the UK that is responsible for more air pollution or more carbon emissions, you will find few that beat Heathrow. But no. Heathrow has now won yet another (it has won two before) environmental award. This time it is from West London Business Awards. Heathrow was the winner in the "Green Business of the Year" category. The runner up was another sponsor of the awards, Westfield. As the local paper reports, with a tremendous Freudian slip, the Heathrow schemes were successful in ...."reduced local air quality levels." This has all been too much for a local resident, who has "improved" on the local newspaper story, with a slight twist .... to report on the comedy awards. One of the reasons for their award was "encouraging the use of car sharing", which is slightly spoilt by a photo, by the local writer, of a huge billboard advertising Heathrow's new business car park.
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Manchester Airports Group boss calls for regional perspective in aviation debate
The head of the Manchester airports group, that owns Manchester and Stansted airports, among others, says the government must not forget about its pledge to tackle the North-South divide when setting aviation policy.Speaking at the RunwaysUK event in Manchester on 2nd December, Charlie Cornish said there is more to the debate than just looking at boosting capacity at Heathrow or Gatwick - as is the proposal by the Airports Commission. He said there was a "strong economic case" for regional airports to be "more than spokes" serving a southern hub, as he cited investments by Emirates and Etihad which have created hundreds of jobs in the North West. "There should be a network of competing airports in the UK, especially if you consider the opportunity presented by rail enhancements. With HS2 and HS3 there is an opportunity for regions in the UK to actually start to narrow the North- South divide. The Chancellor's support for the Northern Powerhouse is fundamentally important to rebalancing the UK economy." MAG expects their airports to "grow irrespective of the decisions made on Heathrow or Gatwick"
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Heathrow hopes to overcome community opposition to 3rd runway with more extensive house purchase plans
Heathrow held a consultation on compensation arrangements earlier in the year. Hacan did not take part, believing people should not have to agree to, or comment on, entirely hypothetical proposals. Now Heathrow has felt the need to improve the generosity and scope of its compensation offer, due the manifest unfairness of its previous offer. It will now extend the offer to buy houses, for pre-blight market price plus 25%, and with £7,500 for selling costs and stamp duty. This will now cover all of Harmondsworth, Sipson, Poyle, Colnbrook, Brands Hill, Harlington and Cranford Cross. There will no longer be unfair lines, with those just outside the line missing out. There would be about 3,750 people included in the scheme. The earlier offer was for only 750 properties in Sipson and Harmondsworth that would be subject to compulsory purchase orders if there was a north west runway. Realising that communities die, and their spirit is lost, as soon as many people decide to accept cash and move out, Heathrow says they will "refurbish and sound-insulate any properties it buys before putting them back up for sale" in the forlorn hope that would prevent the community from losing its heart?
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Unknown cost to taxpayer of tunnelling M25 could equal several years total flood defence spending
If Heathrow airport was allowed to build its new north west runway, documents prepared for the Airports Commission by Jacobs indicate the cost of the works to tunnel the M25 (at its widest in that part of its circular route) could cost between £1.35bn to £3.22bn. How much Heathrow would pay is not yet clear. The cost would depend on the length of motorway affected and the cost per kilometre. Recent work to widen the M25 cost £3.4 billion for 35 kilometres. The Commission thinks that figure is too high, though it included 30 years-worth of maintenance (costing 20% of the total). The cost of the work should perhaps be around £50 million per kilometre, or more. The Commission says: "We note that the airport operator has suggested funding 50% of these works, with the remaining 50% borne by the public sector. The Airports Commission has not taken a view as to the split of funding between private and public sources and believes that this would be a matter for negotiation should the scheme be taken forward." By contrast the Government spent £2.3 billion on floor prevention for the 4 years 2011 to 2015.