Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Manston Airport site sold to developers for manufacturing and homes
Manston airport has been bought by developers, Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave who have done two other regeneration projects in the UK - the largest being in Billingham. They are part of joint venture company Wynyard Park Limited. They recently met with former airport owner, Ann Gloag, and reached agreement to acquire a majority interest in the Manston site. Future development will be aimed at providing space for a wide range of businesses, with a focus on attracting companies interested in advanced manufacturing, as well as the provision of housing, shops, schools and community facilities. They say it is still is too early to be specific about their plans, but they will be looking to comprehensively redevelop the whole site to create a mixed-use community. The airport has closed, the equipment has been sold and it will not reopen. "We are aware that there were a number of job losses when the airport closed and a far greater number will replace these." They plan a 20-year £1bn redevelopment to "create more than 4,000 jobs". Roger Gale, Tory MP for Thanet North, said it sounded "remarkably like opportunist land-banking".
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Mary Dejevsky: “Momentum is gathering behind Heathrow’s 3rd runway. We need to stop it in its tracks”
Writing in the Independent, Mary Dejevsky writes persuasively about the real issue of noise from Heathrow airport, affecting perhaps half a million Londoners. She says it is only near the airport that noise is monitored, regulations apply and residents qualify for insulation. "Noise elsewhere on the flight-path is not regarded by the aviation authorities as any real nuisance." And complaining is unrewarding and ineffective. "The Shadow Chancellor, Ed Balls, told the Labour Party conference yesterday that all options for a new runway were on the table, including Heathrow." Mary pours scorn on the distasteful full-page ad by Heathrow recently, a small child and implying (unconvincingly) that her future welfare is dependent on a 3rd Heathrow. Mary says what is not mentioned in the advert is "the noise and the pollution not just around the existing airport, but the noise, pollution and safety considerations that somehow don’t count because they are not absolutely on the airport perimeter." And "what about other little girls, and the parents who hold down demanding jobs and collect them from school, despite losing a couple of hours sleep a night, are they not “stakeholders” in the country and its transport system, too?"
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Big protest in Queens, New York, against unacceptable level of aircraft noise from La Guardian & JFK airports
People living near La Guardia airport, and JFK airport in New York have been protesting against the aircraft noise to which they are being subjected. On 14th September, the local community group, "QUEENS QUIET SKIES" organized a rally of 250 - 300 people against the plane noise, saying the residents are fed up with the noise. Residents say changes over the past few years have made backyards (=gardens) unusable and had a very negative effect on their neighbourhoods. They want less noise, with the acceptable noise level reduced to 55 decibels from the current 65-decibel day-night average sound level. This could be done by more dispersed flights. They also want better noise abatement programs. People in Queens want the issue of aircraft noise tacked on a national level, and say the current noise standard, which has been in place since the 1970s, "is no longer a reliable measure of the true impact of aircraft noise." As it England and elsewhere the impact is that people can no longer enjoy sitting in the garden, a barbeque with friends - or even just the basic "luxury" of opening the windows on a hot day. One commented: “No one should be subjected to planes flying at low altitudes at one-minute intervals for 18 hours a day every day. Enough is enough.”
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Does Heathrow advert implying a small girl needs a 3rd runway, for her future, meet Advertising Standards?
Earlier this week, Heathrow put out full page advertisements for their 3rd runway. This is part of an on-going, and expensive media campaign. However, they may have mis-judged the tone of this one. It features a small girl, aged about 5, with her hand up - and the text makes out that her future well being will depend upon ..... guess what?? .... a new Heathrow runway. The advert says the 3rd runway will deliver "... at least £100 billion of economic benefits [no timescale given] the length and breadth of the country. .... So, even if our little girl never leaves home, she'll still feel the benefit." People may have been inspired to write to the Advertising Standards Authority, to complain about this rather dubious text, with unsubstantiated claims, making use of a small child, to try to make a PR point. One such letter to the ASA has been copied to AirportWatch, in which the writer clearly puts the case that what this child needs is a stable climate for her future, not accelerating carbon emissions. The writer believes the advert to be misleading, and asks the ASA to have it withdrawn.
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Protesters line route of Tour of Britain to campaign against Gatwick flight paths
Local campaign group, Communities Against Noise and Emissions (CAGNE), which is helping residents oppose increased aircraft noise from Gatwick, lined part of the route of the Tour of Britain last week. They watched cyclists as they passed through Horsham, with banners and placards about their campaign. CAGNE chairman Sally Pavey said: “We took the opportunity of the tour to raise awareness of our campaign. We had lots of interest from people, some of which have found themselves suddenly under a trial flight path." Though the ADNID flight path trial, which concentrated flights over areas south west of Gatwick, has now ended, the problem is still there. Having experienced the deeply unpleasant and intrusive noise nuisance of the flight path trial, people are now very concerned about the prospect of a 2nd Gatwick runway, realising the noise implications. CAGNE started in Warnham, when the trial began in April, and it has quickly attracted hundreds of members Warnham, Rusper, Kingsfold, Rowhook, Broadbridge Heath, Slinfold parishes and north Horsham. Other groups have now formed to the east of Gatwick, to oppose the new noise they are also suffering.
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Heathrow seeks 20-year landing charge deal with CAA so investors will fund 3rd runway
For many years, Heathrow has been in dispute with the CAA about the level of charges to airlines using the airport. It is now reported to be demanding a 20-year deal on landing charges in return for building a 3rd runway. Heathrow says it needs a fundamental review of the regulatory regime, where prices are reviewed every five years, if it is to bear the risk of the £15 billion capital outlay that a new runway would require. The request, part of its 400-page submission to the Airports Commission, is likely to infuriate airline customers, who have been complaining bitterly about its high passenger charges. Assessment of the financial viability, and possibility, of the runway proposals is part of the task of the Airports Commission. Heathrow said a deal on regulation needs to cover a period “from the point of committing the first significant investment, for at least 15 years” and it wants the government to guarantee that all “efficiently incurred” expenditure is included in the company’s regulated asset base (means a proxy for an airport’s value – which rises in line with investment in new facilities, such as terminals and runways) in future — with safeguards to prevent write-downs.
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Prices of long-haul flights from Scottish airports slashed as Middle East airlines compete – cheaper than going via Heathrow
Air passengers from Scotland, travelling to the Middle East and Australia are benefitting from a price war between the major airlines. Emirates and Qatar Airways are bitter rivals, founded less than 10 years apart in 1985 and 1993 respectively, and then the arrival of Etihad in 2003 put both under pressure. Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad now compete for long haul passengers from Scottish airports, to Dubai, Thailand and Australia. The price of a ticked on Etihad from Edinburgh to Sydney for next summer is about £790, cheaper than the cost of an Etihad flight from Heathrow. Emirates has slashed its return fare from Glasgow to a low of £771 for the same dates. The same flight with Qatar Airways comes in at £995 return. Industry experts predict fierce competition between the 3 carriers, undercutting each other. Due to the 3 Middle East airlines competing, fares to Australia are cheaper from Scotland than from Heathrow or Amsterdam. So one less reason to need to expand Heathrow, or worry about losing traffic to Schiphol.
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Heathrow flight path trials branded an “omnishambles” by councillors, given no prior warning (and then asked to back 3rd runway)
During a full Bracknell Forest Council meeting on 17th a motion put forward by Councillor Marc Brunel-Walker to ensure the borough’s residents views are considered by the airport was unanimously carried. The motion came after councillors received complaints from people in Winkfield, Warfield, Binfield and Ascot who noticed a large amount of planes flying over their homes in July. Local MP Adam Afriye, who himself lives in Old Windsor, knows the problem. He has said he will continue his 10-year campaign to fight any changes in flights which expose residents to higher levels of aircraft noise. He has received extensive correspondence from distressed residents who feel the aircraft noise pattern has changed and is now unbearable. Bracknell councillors are very angry they were not consulted by Heathrow in advance of the trials. One councillor said he was disgusted to receive no information about the trial, but at the same time get a letter asking him to back Heathrow’s campaign for a 3rd runway. He said: “This has been an own goal in PR terms, the only way to describe it is an omnishambles....The irony of neighbours receiving this letter should not escape any of us."
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Anger as Heathrow’s latest flight path trials subject thousands to unacceptable noise levels
Heathrow is conducting trials of new flight paths, both to the west and to the east of the airport. Since the easterly trial started (28th July) and the westerly trial started (25th August) the airport has been swamped with complaints. The complaints line can no longer cope. For many people, there has been a sudden and unacceptable increase in noise. The changed, concentrated, routes have been blamed for the "unacceptable and intolerable" noise above a number of Surrey villages. Some of the worse affected areas to the west are Englefield Green, Egham, Thorpe, Virginia Water, Windlesham, Bagshot, Lightwater, Sunninghill and Ascot. Petitions to the airport have been set up in Ascot, Lightwater and now in Englefield Green, asking that the trials be stopped. People feel that even after the end of the trials that ended in June, the increased noise from them has continued. People living under the new, concentrated, routes are now subjected to more, louder, aircraft noise as late as 11.50pm and as early as 6am. The purpose of all this is to get more flights off Heathrow's runways, so the airport can be more profitable for its foreign owners.
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Dubai to expand Al Maktoum airport to overtake Dubai International and handle 240 million passengers per year
Dubai already has a huge airport, Dubai International, which overtook Heathrow as the busiest airport in the world for international passenger traffic. Now Dubai is to build an every larger airport, expanding Al Maktoum International, which might cost some £19.8 billion and would be the largest airport in the world. It will cover an area of over 200 square kilometres (not a problem with lots of spare desert). It would be built in the desert, not affecting many people. Dubai wants the airport to handle 240 million passengers per year, compared to around 70 million at Heathrow now, and about 230 million for all UK airports. The plan is to build it is two phases. The first would take 6 - 8 years,up to 120 million passengers per year. The British government, and people like Boris, have a macho horror of some other country having an airport larger than we have. There is a dread of confronting reality, that Heathrow will need to decline, comparatively, against the Middle East. The UK is no longer in the right geographical location to remain the world's largest hub. The world is moving on. Trying to out-do Dubai, where everything is entirely different, and to the great detriment of people living in the crowded south east of England, is a mug's game.