Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Thousands delayed after flights delayed and many cancelled due to NATS air traffic control technical problems at Swanwick
Thousands of passengers were left stranded on Saturday after hundreds of flights were grounded at airports following a technical fault at the country’s main air traffic control centre. The problem at Swanwick led to delays to flight across southern England, Ireland and Europe, with Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, and ot others badly affected. Problems began when the control centre’s computer systems failed to automatically switch from night to day operations, forcing flight controllers to carry out the procedure manually. Only a few airspace sectors are needed at night, with more in use from early morning, when the increasing number requires a larger number of controllers handling them. The problem was with the telephone system, causing NATS difficulty reconfiguring the sectors. The fault took much of the day to fix, and there were large numbers of flight delays and cancellations, with stories of those affected and inconvenienced. The Swanwick centre opened in January 2002 at a cost of £623 million. NATS said their system is not simply internal telephones, it is the system that controllers use to speak to other ATC agencies both in the UK and Europe and is the biggest system of its kind in Europe. (And there are plans perhaps to add another runway in the southeast, adding the equivalent of another Gatwick to the system?)
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Lydd airport and its wishful thinking: “Lydd Airport to ease UK congestion” !
Lydd airport is getting into the act, in the run up to the interim announcement by the Airports Commission, which is likely to be on 17th December. Lydd is a tiny airport, built in a very remote location on Romney Marsh, close to Dungeness nuclear power station. The airport has hopes that it will become a "a modern regional airport" and "will help to meet growing demand for airport capacity in the South East, and help ease congestion in the skies." The first phase of its expansion – the construction of a 294m runway extension, plus a 150m starter extension – is due to start in 2014, allowing the airport to handle 737-type jets. A new terminal building is planned once passenger numbers begin to improve. Approval for the development was won after an eight-year battle for planning permission. It is still being opposed on legal grounds, due to nuclear safety concerns. While the expansion will cost £25 million, the airport owner has already spent £30 million on modernising in the past 10 years. Lydd is currently working on more than 60 pre-commencement conditions, which are expected to be complete in early 2014, at which point the runway contract extension will be put out to tender
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Airports Commission input into National Infrastructure Plan on improvements to surface access to main airports
Sir Howard Davies wrote to George Osborne on 26th November, on surface access to airports. This has influenced the National Infrastructure Plan for 2013, now released. The Airports Commission says that as adding any new runways will take a decade (or decades), in the interim “there is a strong case for attaching a greater strategic priority to transport investments which improve surface access to our airports.” The letter gives specific recommendations on improving surface access at UK main airports. On Heathrow it recommends: "Recognising the importance of encouraging modal shift towards more environmentally sustainable forms of transport at Heathrow, not only for supporting future expansion plans [!?] but also for optimising the airport's operations within its current capacity constraints, the Government should work with Network Rail to undertake a detailed study to find the best option for enhancing rail access into Heathrow from the south. Initial indications are that up to roughly 15% of Heathrow's passengers in the London and South East region could benefit from improved Southern Access." They "remain concerned that the proportion of users (particularly workforce) accessing Heathrow using private cars remains high, with consequent implications for air quality."
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Airports Commission surface transport improvement plans for Gatwick airport including £180 million station upgrade
Sir Howard Davies (Chairman of the Airports Commission) has written to George Osborne, on the subject of surface access to airports. He says that as adding any new runways will take a decade (or decades), in the interim "there is a strong case for attaching a greater strategic priority to transport investments which improve surface access to our airports." The Airports Commission have recommended improvements for Gatwick including improvements to the train station, which could cost £180 million - "subject to the airport providing an appropriate contribution to the costs of the scheme." It is not currently regarded as being well suited to travellers, especially those with heavy luggage, so better luggage space would need to be added. The Commission says Gatwick is succeeding in getting more long haul routes, and due to capacity constraints at Heathrow, "we believe that the UK's interests to enable passengers to more effectively access Gatwick's increasing connections to new markets, as well as its existing route network." The government says it will provide £50m towards the redevelopment of the station, subject to satisfactory commercial negotiations with Gatwick airport.
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Stansted launches consultation with leading businesses to help attract long-haul carriers
While in 2012 over 92% of Stansted's passengers were travelling to or from the EU, and only a bit of 7% were to other countries, the airport's management say they are keen to develop more long haul routes. They are calling on more than 300 businesses from across the East of England to work together to help attract direct long-haul services to the airport.The aim is to demonstrate to airlines that don't currently use the airport that there is demand for more long haul business destinations from Stansted (apart from the huge majority of leisure trips - which are about 85% of Stansted's passengers). The study will focus on companies that use long-haul air links but which currently have to travel from other London airports. Stansted says more than 46 million journeys are made each year by people living within Stansted’s catchment area, but only 12m of those flights are actually from the airport itself. Of the remaining 34 million flights, around 6 million involving flying long-haul to and from the Middle East, Asia, Africa and Australasia, and 4.6 m passengers take flights to and from North America. Andrew Harrison, MD of Stansted wants to "make long-haul destinations a reality from Stansted.”
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Stop Stansted Expansion comment on the failure of their bias challenge against Airports Commission in the High Court
High Court Judge Mrs Justice Patterson has issued her ruling on the challenge brought by SSE arising from the role played by Mr Geoff Muirhead as a Commissioner on the Airports Commission. She agreed it was right for him to step down from the Commission as soon as it became known that his former employer, MAG, the owners of Stansted Airport, would be submitting proposals for extra runways there. But she ruled against SSE in deciding that no previous harm could have been done by Mr Muirhead, in terms of bias, during his involvement with the Commission from 2.11.2012 until his resignation on 20.9.2013 - which happened only after SSE had instructed its lawyers to commence legal proceedings. She did say that it could not be regarded "as the most wise" for him to remain on the Commission for so long. SSE still has some concerns about the integrity of the process going forward. SSE say that because there is so much at stake and the position is still not entirely satisfactory, they will be considering the ruling and whether aspects need to be taken to the Court of Appeal.
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Luton plans to increase passenger capacity to be heard at Luton council meeting on 20th December
Plans to increase capacity at Luton Airport will be heard at a council meeting on 20th December. The meeting had been due for 21st November, but was postponed. The 10am meeting will be open to the public to attend. The application would effectively allow an increase in passengers of 10 million, so it should be regarded as an Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project and therefore referred to the Secretary of State, and not determined by the local council. The plans are not for any new runway capacity but road improvements, a new mult-storey car park, car park extensions, terminal improvements and extensions, and more taxi-ways and aircraft parking - enabling more planes and more passengers.Local campaign, HALE, says the reason for the hurry is that the the planning application expires on 27th December. As well as the NSIP issue, the other key area of disagreement is a lack of clarity relating to the noise levels governing the airport. Luton Borough Council has not justified the basis for its interpretation of the 1999 noise levels. This means that governance of the noise environment around Luton remains open to question and lack of clarity.
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Chiswick group says new hi-tech BA ‘Magic of Flying’ adverts may become ‘tragic roundabout’ if drivers distracted
BA hopes it has hit upon a dramatic new form of advertising, with massive ad billboards, near roads, which can detect the presence of a BA plane overhead. When one is detected, it plays a film of a child looking up excitedly at the plane, and then shows which flight it is, and where from. BA hope this will make viewers ".. dream of an amazing holiday or warm destination." and “We hope it will create a real ‘wow’ and people will be reminded how amazing flying is and how accessible the world can be” (and get them to buy flights, of course). A bit of slick marketing. They have put one of the massive billboards at the Chiswick Roundabout, which is several hundred yards north of the northern runway approach path and has exceptionally heavy traffic. The local West Chiswick and Gunnersbury Society, which opposed the building of the advert towers originally, are very concerned the BA ads are a safety issue, distracting drivers. They say when the billboards were approved, the displays had to be "identical at all times and shall be static and two dimensional only with no moving or apparently moving images" etc, Hounslow Council need to decide if the BA ads breach their planning condition
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New 7 year deal between Gatwick and Norwegian, that includes airline’s backing for 2nd runway
Gatwick airport has struck a deal with European low fares airline Norwegian, which includes getting their active support for the airport's plans to get a 2nd runway. This comes weeks after the CAA agreed that Gatwick can make bespoke commercial arrangements with its airlines. Norwegian is to start low-cost transatlantic services to 3 US airports, using Boeing 787 Dreamliners next summer in addition to an increased European network. It is expected that there will be 3 flights per week to New York after July 2014, and 2 flights per week each to Los Angeles and Fort Lauderdale. These may cost as little as £150 one way. The number of destinations served by Norwegian from Gatwick will rise to 33 in 2014 with 6 aircraft based there. This will make Norwegian one of the top 4 airlines at Gatwick during 2014. Low fares to the USA is expected to draw in more passengers. The airline's CEO said: “Norwegian is very supportive of Gatwick’s runway expansion plan which would mean that the airport could offer even better operating facilities in the future.”
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Many regional airports doing badly – falling numbers of passengers and falling profits
Many of UK's regional airports are not doing well - with the sale for only £1 of Prestwick, and the sale of Manston for little more recently. Over the past 5 years, with the recession, many have seen falling passenger numbers. Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham airport, is quoted as saying nationalising airports (Prestwick and Cardiff) is not the answer. “If you’re nationalising (airports) – then something’s not working. Governments shouldn’t have to interfere.” A venture capitalist specialising in turnrounds, says there are too many airports, and very few UK airports are profitable. Many of them therefore need to close. While airlines fight for customers, competitively cutting fares, the airports fear this passes the economic pain onto them. The proliferation of regional airports means that many have overlapping catchment areas, intensifying the scrabble for a limited pool of travellers. Airports have to keep their aeronautical charges low in order to keep airlines, and make little or no profit. Many regional airports were bought for high prices, and there was undue optimism about their growth - which has not materialised. However, some regional airports within reach of London may be used to increase the south east's airport capacity.