Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Airport groups write to Aviation Minister, voicing concerns about ICCAN being wound up
The DfT has decided to close down the ICCAN (the Independent Commission on Civil Aviation Noise) at the end of September. Now a large number of community groups at airports, for people negatively affected by aircraft noise, have written to the Aviation Minister, Robert Courts. They say they "were surprised and disappointed by your announcement that ICCAN will be wound up later this month and its functions transferred to the CAA next year. We were particularly surprised you saw no need to discuss this significant change with communities impacted by aircraft noise." ICCAN was supposed to "give communities a greater stake in processes which propose to make noise changes, and ensure such processes better and more transparently balance the needs of all parties" and "be instrumental in ensuring that the needs of local communities are properly taken into account when considering the noise impacts of any airport expansion." There are therefore serious concerns of overflown communities, in the absence of ICCAN. The letter suggests 4 key actions and changes that will need to accompany any transfer of roles to the CAA if it is to command the confidence of adversely impacted communities.
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Hope is not a Strategy – Aviation cannot be allowed to keep adding to the climate crisis
With just two months to go before the UK Government hosts the vitally important COP26 International Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Stansted Airport Watch ('SAW'), and a host of other environmental campaign groups from all across the UK, are pressing the Government for immediate action to tackle aviation's growing impact on climate change. UK aviation was responsible for 38 million tonnes of CO2 emissions in 2019 and the Government is content to allow this to continue to increase until 2030 and still to be more than 30 million tonnes in 2040 - by letting airports expand. In response to the DfT consultation, on its "Jet Zero by 2050" strategy, SAW has submitted a highly critical evidence paper challenging the DfT's 'business as usual' strategy and its total reliance on technological solutions emerging from beyond the horizon over the next 20-30 years (new biofuels, novel fuels, electric and hydrogen fuelled planes, and carbon storage technologies). The key message from SAW is that "Hope is not a Strategy". SAW has also submitted evidence to the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee Inquiry into the apparent contradiction between the Government's expansionist aviation policy and its declared commitment to tackling climate change.
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Letter from academics on Jet Zero’s failure to reduce aviation CO2 by avoiding air travel demand management
Sir, As academics and researchers with expertise in climate science, meteorology, transport, nutrition and other fields, we are writing in response to Jet Zero, the government’s proposed strategy to decarbonise flying. Jet Zero would allow UK aviation emissions to increase up to 2030 from 2019 levels. This is counter to very clear advice from the UK Climate Change Committee to the government: measures to limit demand for flying should form an integral part of meeting our emissions reduction targets, alongside exploring the longer term technological innovations set out in Jet Zero. The report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change makes it starkly clear that it is vital to meet our net zero targets. As António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, said recently: “There is no time for delay and no room for excuses.” The management of aviation demand must be sufficiently responsive so as to keep emissions reduction targets firmly within sight through the inevitable successes and failures of new technology.
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Government will not review the Airports National Policy Statement, on any of the challenge grounds
The Government had the option of reviewing the Airports National Policy Statement (ANPS) after the legal challenges, which took place during 2019 and 2020. One key issue of the challenges was the impact on the UK's climate targets of allowing Heathrow to increase its carbon emissions by up to 50%. Now the DfT has decided it will not review the ANPS, so it continues to be the underlying policy through which Heathrow could expand. The airport still has to go through the Development Consent Order (DCO) process, to get approval for a 3rd runway. Grant Shapps, Transport Secretary of State, says that even though the UK now has a target of 78% cuts in CO2 emissions by 2035 and international aviation should be included in that target (compared to 1990 levels) and "considers that it is not possible to conclude properly that any of the policy set out in the ANPS would have been materially different had these circumstances been anticipated at the time of designation [June 2018]." The overall impact of Heathrow expansion, combined with expansion of other airports, will be considered by the Planning Inspectorate at the DCO stage. It appears an opportunity to reduce UK aviation CO2 emissions has been missed, and government will do as little as possible on the issue.
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Gatwick’s Big Enough – a 2nd runway at Gatwick would be ‘disaster for the climate’
Protesters, organised through the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), gathered near the airport, chanting 'Gatwick is big enough', to express their opposition to the airport's plans to convert its standby runway into a runway for routine flights. Campaigners, residents and councillors held a peaceful demonstration next to a noise monitor in Charlwood, to coincide with the midnight launch of Gatwick's public consultation into its proposed expansion. Operating as a 2-runway airport would see Gatwick increase its annual passenger capacity from 62 million to 75m by 2038 - making it almost as large as Heathrow today. GACC chairman, Peter Barclay said the expansion of the airport would have negative impacts for people over a wide area - in terms of noise and air pollution, more night noise and sleep deprivation, and impacts on local infrastructure. All that affects people's quality of life. While humanity urgently needs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, if we are to avoid the most catastrophic impacts of climate change, it makes no sense d to allow Gatwick to expand, adding another 1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year.
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Gatwick public consultation begins on plans to convert standby runway to full use as 2nd runway
Gatwick airport has started a public consultation on its plans to bring its standby runway, just north of the main runway, into routine use for departing aircraft - alongside the main runway. It means having to reposition the centre line of the standby runway, moving it 12 metres north. That then just meets international runway safety standards. The consultation ends on 1st December 2021. Due to the size of the proposal, increasing the annual number of passengers by over 10 million, it is classed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project. Therefore Gatwick will next have to apply for a Development Consent Order (DCO) to build and operate the altered runway. This consultation is not the DCO application itself. Gatwick hopes to get consent to start the first stages of the runway process by 2023, starting actual building work in 2024, with the runway finished by 2029. The work is expected currently to cost £500 million - there are extravagant claims about numbers of new jobs and local economic benefit. This growth is in addition to more growth by increased use of the main runway, but that does not need a DCO application. Gatwick's annual CO2 emissions could rise by a million tonnes.
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Heathrow residents demand end to night flights as they’re extended to 2025
People are being disturbed by Heathrow night flight noise, as flight numbers increase again after the large reduction in flights due to the pandemic. Currently Heathrow is allowed 16 landings or take-offs per night (ie. 5,800 per year) between the times of 23.30 and 06.00, Heathrow says a night quota limit is also in place, […]
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Gatwick 2nd runway plans must – and will – be opposed and rejected
Local community group, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), say the proposed expansion of Gatwick, which it confirmed today, is unwelcome, unnecessary; if approved, it would have devastating consequences for the environment, local communities, and people living under flight paths, even many miles away. GACC - with local community groups - is relaunching its ‘Gatwick’s Big Enough’ campaign to fight the proposals. The plan to grow the airport's capacity by between 40% and over 60% over the next 15 years involves use of new technology on the main runway, and re-aligning and widening the existing emergency (or standby) runway to form a 2nd runway. This will mean more noise, more local rail and road congestion, more air pollution and more carbon emissions. If it gets its way, Gatwick would be able to grow from 45 million passengers and 280,000 flights in 2018, to 74 million passengers and 390,000 flights over the next 15 years, nearly the size Heathrow is now. GACC says: "This proposal is unnecessary and ill conceived. It must and will be opposed and rejected.“
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Gatwick announces plans to bring its standby runway into routine use
Gatwick airport has announced that it will start a 12 week consultation, from the 9th September to the 1st December, on its plans to modify and alter the current standby runway, for use as another runway. This consultation comes before Gatwick submits an application to the Planning Inspectorate for a Development Consent Order (DCO) for the expansion. This is necessary because, under the Planning Act ? 2012, any airport application that will result in more than 10 million more annual passengers, and thus be considered to be a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project, has to go through the DCO process, rather than the conventional planning application to the local authority. Details of the consultation and its contents will be published on 9th September, but it is thought that materials will be entirely - or almost entirely - online. This application for a huge increase in annual air passengers, and thus inevitably an increase in carbon emissions, comes before the UK hosts the COP26 climate talks, and the IPCC has warned about just how serious the climate change situation is - including the urgency of the need to cut carbon emissions.
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Gatwick in talks with lenders, after losing another £245 million in the first half of 2021
Gatwick says it made a loss of £245m in the first half of 2021, as passenger numbers collapsed to 569,000. It expects to have 9 million passengers by December, but that is lower than the 10 million in 2020. In 2019 it had 46.5 million. The airport is now in talks with its lenders to ease the terms of its loans, due to the losses. It lost £465.5 million in 2020. Due to its weak finances and continuing low demand for air travel, Gatwick has asked its lenders to agree to short-term waivers on its loans to avoid it defaulting. This was also done last year, and the same thing happened at Heathrow. Virgin Atlantic, one of Gatwick’s longest-standing airline customers, has ceased its operations at Gatwick for now, while British Airways has moved all of its short-haul flights to Heathrow, due to the low level of demand. However, BA said it will continue with at least long-haul operations from Gatwick. The airport said it had 779m of liquidity at the end of June, which it hopes would last it for the next 12 months, with no more staff being made redundant. It has cancelled or deferred more than £570m of capital spending that had been planned for 2020, 2021 and 2022.