Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
New Airports Commission paper questions future growth of regional airports
The Aviation Environment Federation gives an interesting commentary on the Airports Commission’s latest call for evidence, which considers possible means to promote more effective use of regional airports. AEF says that while the Commission maintains its firm support for a new runway to bolster the UK’s connectivity to emerging markets, the paper suggests it would not be opposed to some scaling back in airport capacity in the regions. The Commission’s vision appears to be of an increasingly centralised airports system focussed on London. The Commission appears to challenge claims from some regional airports that they significantly benefit the wider UK economy. It notes that regional airports predominantly – and increasingly – cater to tourist travellers, the Commission argues that “aviation connectivity… facilitates outbound tourism, as well as inbound, so the net impact is unclear.” If the Commission’s final recommendation is to be a significant scaling back in activity at regional airports in order to allow growth in London, it can expect to face major obstacles.
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Gatwick hopes its claim will be believed that area’s road network will ‘better than or the same’ with 2nd runway
Gatwick airport's publicity machine is saying the area’s road network would be left ‘better than or the same’ if a second runway was built at Gatwick. It is claiming its planned infrastructure improvements will make it ‘road and rail ready’ by 2021 for a new runway. And "with no additional cost to the taxpayer." They want to "create a regional transport hub to help drive economic growth across the entire area." Works on a new junction on the A24 are due to start now and could last 18 months, while roadworks have been ongoing on the A23 near Handcross since 2011. Gatwick's spokesman, Hugh Sumner, said of the local road network’s ability to cope with any additional strain: “Our commitment is we are going to leave the road systems working better than or the same in 2050." But the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), which opposes a 2nd runway, questioned the contents of the transport document. Brendon Sewill, chair of GACC, said: “The document published by [Gatwick Airport Limited] contains 10% inaccuracies, 20% inconsistencies, and 50% wishful thinking." TfL appreciate the huge strain a new Gatwick runway will place on surface transport networks, which Gatwick is attempting to gloss over.
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Ryanair to have one flight per week to Tenerife in winter from Cardiff airport
Ryanair has been seen as the holy grail for passenger numbers at Cardiff Airport. But Cardiff will now have just one Ryanair route, once a week to Tenerife during the winter. "However, there is a wave of optimism that this one route will develop into a network that will improve the airline offering at Cardiff." There is a history to the relationship between Ryanair and Cardiff Airport. Ryanair had a very successful route between Cardiff and Dublin from 2001 to 2006. The departure of Ryanair followed a reported disagreement with the airport over airport charges.improve the experience for all passengers. Ryanair is an opportunity if the passenger numbers on the new route convince Ryanair to develop even more new routes. However Ryanair would need to deliver substantial passenger numbers to compensate for the lower charges that Cardiff airport will be paid. It would also be necessary to maintain the existing carriers as competition so that Cardiff doesn’t become an airport totally reliant on a single carrier that is using market power to continuously drive down airport income.
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Scottish Transport Minister warns Dundee Airport still faces major challenges even with £2.85 million PSO help
The Scottish Transport Minister has said that Dundee Airport still faces a challenge after the £2.85 million funding guaranteeing its future for 2 years was approved. Councillors agreed the public service obligation (PSO) between Westminster and Dundee City Council, which guarantees the money to keep the Dundee to London (Stansted) air route open. Scottish Transport Minister Keith Brown, while welcoming the deal, said it was only part of securing the long-term future of the airport. Dundee Airport can now start looking forward. The airport faces a challenge in the increasingly competitive aviation market and needs to continue looking at all the available options to encourage more passengers and businesses to use it. They might be able to drum up business from the offshore renewable energy sector. The PSO funding comes from the new Regional Air Connectivity fund and is the first funding of its kind.
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Gatwick’s head of corporate affairs and lobbying, James Colman, leaving – no successor yet
James Colman joined Gatwick in April 2012 as their chief lobbyist, to promote their second runway bid. He is now leaving. His title was Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Director. Previously he was at British Gas where he was Head of Communications. The airport website blurb says of him: "He has a wealth of corporate communications experience, including 14 years working with blue-chip companies (eg John Lewis Partnership and PepsiCo.) and organisations across the UK, Europe and globally, mainly in the FMCG, retail and energy sectors. The Telegraph's City Diary says he is "credited with playing a “key role” in getting the Gatwick bid off the ground" .... and he "has packed his bags for an – as yet unnamed – new destination." Mr Colman’s successor has not yet been found, but a Gatwick spokesman said the recruitment process is “under way”. In February 2013 Gatwick brought in Fishburn Hedges and the London Communications Agency (LCA) on an integrated PR and public affairs brief, as part of its second runway lobbying.
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Level playing field on transport costs vital to proper assessment of runway options – says TfL
The issue of surface access to airports was the subject of the RunwaysUK conference on 2nd June. Michèle Dix, planning director of Transport for London, said that the costs for surface access for each of the runway options must be assessed against a level playing field of criteria. Michèle said it was vital that estimates by runway promoters reflected that actual needs of transport in the capital. “You need to compare like with like. What are the true and full costs of accommodating this additional demand? If airports are placing a greater demand on the network then we need a greater transport provision.” The Thames estuary proposal had not compared the surface access needs, like for like. She estimated that comparable “optimal” investment level of investment needed – the total package of transport schemes required to deliver an optimal level of surface transport access – for Heathrow was £17.6bn, Gatwick £12.4bn and an Inner Thames Estuary airport £19.1bn.
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Residents in areas near Luton urged to record the aircraft noise
Residents in the Luton area have held a meeting to voice their concerns following the decision in early May by the Government (Eric Pickles) to not call in the planning application for the expansion for Luton Airport. The meeting, chaired by Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (LADACAN), was held in Breachwood Green and was attended by about 50 people. They were encouraged to record aircraft noise, to keep details of the current situation. The expansion application would see passenger capacity rise from 12.5 million to 18 million a year by 2026. That decision has been widely criticised by local people,and by their MPs who realise it will adversely affect local quality of life for thousands. It means the expansion can now be granted by Luton Borough Council – which also owns the airport. There is very real and widespread concern about the number of night flights, noise both of departures and arrivals, road congestion, and air quality - as well as climate change implications.
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DfT signs first public service obligation to protect Dundee Airport to Stansted route
Air links between Dundee and London have been secured for the next 2 years with funding put in place today by the UK government. The public service obligation (PSO) agreed between the UK government and Dundee City Council guarantees £2.85 million to keep the route open, with flight times between the 2 airports at around 90 minutes. The funding comes from the new Regional Air Connectivity fund announced by Danny Alexander at Spending Round 13. This is the first funding of its kind. Robert Goodwill, UK Aviation Minister said: "Regional airports have a key role to play in our long term economic plan for the nation’s future prosperity, and the government is committed to ensuring they have access to London and vice versa." The Regional Air Connectivity fund can be used to maintain important regional air connections, where they are in danger of being lost. The government doubled the size of the fund to £20 million per year in the 2014 Budget. The government aims to set up a second PSO agreement for the Newquay-London air link later this year, for business and tourism.
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London City Airport now re-consulting on its expansion planning application
London City Airport has a planning application, initially submitted in July 2013, originally with 28th October as the comment deadline, for "Works to demolish existing buildings and structures and provide additional infrastructure and passenger facilities at London City Airport without changes to the number of permitted flights or opening hours previously permitted pursuant to planning permission." The comment deadline was extended to 18th December. The local authority, Newham Council, has now announced that it will be re-consulting on the application. The deadline for comment is now 10th July, with the application expected to go to committee on 23rd July 2014. There have so been 1,282 responses to the application, all of which appear to be objecting to it. The airport said last year they were extending the deadline so"as many local people and wider stakeholders as possible can make their voices heard." here was another deadline of 2nd May, for a consultation on extra material the Mayor and Newham asked of the airport, including an Environmental Statement, addendum etc…. . Tweet
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Heathrow uses glitch-free opening of T2 to try and persuade people it can build a 3rd runway
Heathrow's new Terminal 2 - which cost the airport £2.5 billion - opened on 4th June, with no problems. It had a very low key and unambitious opening, with just 6,000 passengers on the first day of operation – 0.03% of its 20 million passenger capacity - thereby avoiding the chaotic scenes which accompanied the opening of Terminal 5 in 2008. John Holland-Kaye, who takes over as Heathrow’s chief executive next month, claimed the new terminal would help Heathrow's quest for a 3rd runway, as they managed to do it without anything going wrong (there were months of practices to ensure problems were avoided) and with Heathrow staying open. Mr Holland-Kaye, who is paid to say this sort of thing, said perceptions and the "political landscape" about Heathrow had changed (no evidence given) over the past 5 - 6 years. "We have been able to listen much more to the local community and changed our plans to be more acceptable. We have coming together a possibility of building a political consensus around Heathrow".... But that really isn't true....