Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Emirates considers direct flights to the USA from UK northern airports, not Heathrow
Dubai’s Emirates Airline is interested in getting into the competitive transatlantic market, and offer flights from Dubai to the US via the UK. This market is currently dominated by BA, Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Emirates will need to get regulatory approval first. Emirates believes there is strong unmet demand for flights from the north of England to the USA and last year carried 800,000 passengers on its routes in and out of its hubs in the north of England: Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham. There are growing numbers of Emirates passengers and services from these northern UK airports. In October, Emirates will launch flights from Dubai to New York via Milan. Their UK vice president said they are asking the Airports Commission to look at making all the regional airports completely open skies, so anyone can fly anywhere. If they use the northern airports, there is less pressure on the south east airports, and less rationale for building another runway. "Heathrow sits in the south of England, but Manchester has a bigger catchment area in terms of a two-hour drive.” If Emirates goes through with the plan BA and Virgin will be the big losers.
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British Airways A380 with two training flights per day from Manston exciting the plane spotters
Manston airport has finally got some traffic, even if it is only the BA Airbus A380 doing several training flights per day. Plane spotters are getting very excited about the fact that several times per day they can see the A380 take off and land. It leaves Manston each morning at around 7am,goes to a mall airfield east of Paris, before taking off and landing again at Chateauroux airport some 80 miles south of Paris, and then coming back to Kent between 11.15 am and noon. And then the whole thing again starting at 2pm and getting back between 6.15m and 7pm. The training is due to last till September, when the first BA A380s enter service. Pilots are being trained, and also cabin crew. Anyone interested in tracking the A380 at Manston can do so via a number of apps, including flightradar 24. The flight number is BA380. Some activity at Manston at last.
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Heathrow says its investment plans are at risk if CAA limits its charges to airlines
Heathrow wants to put up its charges to airlines significantly. The CAA controls how much the airport can charge, and it has indicated that it will limit the rise in the amount Heathrow can charge to the rate of inflation plus 4.6% per year. However, Heathrow says its shareholders would not be willing to proceed with plans to invest £3bn in the airport over the next 5 years if the CAA imposes stricter controls on price rises. Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow. said they would not proceed with capital spending of no more than £2bn if the CAA does not let them charge the amount they consider acceptable as a return for investors. There is a long term battle between Heathrow and the airlines, and Heathrow has some of the highest charges of any global airport. Heathrow has just reported a pre-tax profit of £186 million for the half year up to June 2013, though they made a loss of £51 million in the same period in 2012. This is largely due to the sale of Stansted. Heathrow's passenger traffic rose 2.4% in the 6 months to June 2013, compared to 2012, to 34.4 million. Most of the growth was European traffic, which rose 4.9% to 14.3 million passengers.
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Munich campaign hands in 80,000 signature petition against 3rd runway to state parliament
On 17th July, the BUND Naturschutz (the largest environmental organisation in Germany) and the "AufgeMUCkt" Action Alliance handed in a petition to the state parliament against the construction of a third runway at Munich Airport. Nearly 80,000 people have signed the petition from all over Bavaria. The petition was handed to the Chairman of the Economic Committee (CSU) and someone from the Environment Committee at the parliament. The campaigners asked the politicians to please take note of the will of the people and decide against allowing a new runway. One campaign leader, Helga Stiegl Meier explained that, among other things, the number of aircraft movements at Munich Airport has been stagnant for years, which she said proves that there is no need for a 3rd runway. Another spokesman said the region has no need of furher aviation expansion, and sustainable transport in Bavaria is facing very different challenges, such as future supplies of cheap oil. The new parliament will have to decide after the state elections in the autumn on a third runway.
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Tonbridge and Malling MP Sir John Stanley shoots down Gatwick airport expansion bid
The MP for Tonbridge & Malling, Sir John Stanley, has said plans by Gatwick airport for a 2nd runway would blight homes in west Kent and lead to intolerable noise and disruption. He has been a long standing opponent of expansion at Gatwick, due to noise suffered by those under flight paths, especially where these are concentrated over narrow areas. He said: "I am totally opposed to any expansion at Gatwick. My constituents living nearby would face intolerable noise and disruption." He added that there were "technical issues", which meant the option of a second runway would make it less commercially attractive, even if they could be overcome. He believes there are better solutions to the problems of the south east, and a new Gatwick runway "would not produce significant job prospects in my constituency, most of whom either work locally or commute to London."
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Heathrow proposes cutting airline landing charge rise to 4.6% above RPI for 5 years
In February Heathrow announced it was intending to increase its airline landing charges, from the current level of £17 per passenger to perhaps up to £25. This caused very negative responses from airlines that use the airport. Now Heathrow has moved to appease airlines by offering to reduce the rise it is seeking to charge between 2014 and 2019. Heathrow has submitted a plan to the CAA seeking approval to raise tariffs by 4.6% above inflation, as measured by the retail prices index (RPI), for the 5 years from April 2014. That is 1.3% lower than their earlier offer of a rise of 5.9%. It means a rise of £1 per year, so a £5 rise by 2019.Gatwick has also agreed to scale back their planned fee increases. Earlier this year Willie Walsh called the airport "over-priced, over-rewarded and inefficient". However, the investors, including Ferrovial and the sovereign wealth funds of Qatar, China and Singapore, who have spent more than £10 billion on the airport over the last decade, expect to see a good return on their investment ie. they want high fees to airlines.
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American company, ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide, has bought Belfast International airport from Abertis
Belfast International Airport is to be sold to the US-based firm, ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide, which has interests in airports in Costa Rica and Ecuador. Belfast International has been owned by the Spanish company Abertis since 2005. Abertis is also selling Stockholm Skavsta airport and other assets to ADC & HAS for a total of £244m. The deal with Abertis is pending approval of minority shareholders and US regulators. Belfast International is the second largest airport in Ireland and handles around 4.3m passengers a year, well down from its peak of around 5.5 million in 2007.
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GACC opposes Gatwick 2nd runway plans – to increase airport to larger than Heathrow is now
GACC, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, are deeply opposed to the plans for a new Gatwick runway because they wish to protect the towns, villages and countryside of Surrey, Sussex and west Kent from the impact of an airport which would be bigger than Heathrow today. The plans show Gatwick growing from 34 million passengers today to around 90 million. According to Brendon Sewill, chairman of GACC: “When people begin to realise what is likely to hit them, there will be a tidal wave of public resistance.” The plans make it clear that GAL’s preferred option is the wide-spaced runway - only a few hundred yards (or less?) from the residential area of Crawley. But amazingly little detail is given. No airport boundary is shown. No indication of where a new terminal (which would need to be bigger than T5) would located. The GAL submission rules out a close parallel runway because ‘the capacity benefit is relatively small’. And rules out a middle width option because there would be no room for a new terminal. There are huge environmental costs of trying to build a full-scale new runway as shown in the plans, with double the air pollution, double or more the CO2 emissions and double the road traffic.
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Gatwick publishes its 3 options for a southern 2nd runway enabling up to 87 mppa
Gatwick Airport has announced its preferred location for a 2nd runway and submitted its plans to the Airports Commission. There are 3 slightly different plans, all for a runway to the south of the existing runway - close, medium or wide spaced. The close runway could not work independently of the existing runway, while the others (at least 750 metres south) could. With the wide spaced runway, over 1,035 metres south, Gatwick could have 95 movements per hour, enabling it to have some 87 million passengers per year (compared to 66 mppa for the close option, and 82 mppa for the medium). Gatwick has managed to get support from the local business lobbies in the area for its plans, and some local council support. Gatwick's CEO, Stewart Wingate said a 2nd Gatwick runway would cost between £5bn and £9bn and could be open by 2025. Gatwick is selling its plans to the Airports Commission on how many fewer people would be affected by noise than at Heathrow, and that it would be cheaper than some other options. Gatwick wants London to have a "constellation" system, with 3 airports each with two runways, at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted
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Head of CBI backs Heathrow 3rd runway while CBI wants all parties to sign up to Commission’s recommendations in advance
Sir Mike Rake, the new president of the CBI, thinks building a 3rd runway at Heathrow is a “no-brainer” and that the Government should get on with increasing aviation capacity immediately. The CBI has always backed massive aviation expansion, rather predictably. He said: “Despite the fact I live near there, I think we should have started a third runway several years ago and I think other projects should follow from that.” He admitted that Heathrow is not the only option and also called for a 2nd runway to be built at Gatwick. “We need to decide quickly and get on with it,” he said. His personal views appear to be slightly at odds with the CBI itself. On Thursday, the CBI released its response to the Airports Commission into airport capacity, stressing that it was open to whatever solution could gain cross-party support and lead to speedy growth. They said all three major parties must sign up to Commission's recommendations in advance, to avoid going back to square one in 2015. The CBI remains the only business group that does not unequivocally back an enlarged Heathrow as the way to deliver the alleged economic growth.