Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Demonstration of the pitfalls of polls: 2 polls. Same place. Same issue. Utterly different results
It is curious that the Hillingdon survey recently sent questionnaires to all 205,634 residents on their electoral role, and got 80,457 responses. Of these responses, 66% said No in reply to the question: "Are you in favour of more flights into and out of Heathrow? Yes/no". Richmond Council recently also sent out 136,880 questionnaires, and 58,953 responses were received, of which 82% replied NO to the same question. Link to Hillingdon and Richmond poll results . However, in the Populus poll for Heathrow, in response to the question: "Taking everything you know into account, do you currently support or oppose expanding Heathrow?" they say that of the 1,000 or so Hillingdon residents questionned, 47% were opposed and of the 1,000 or so residents in Richmond, 51% were opposed. So with a survey size some 80 times larger, the Hillingdon response was substantially more negative (66% cf. 47%) and with a survey size some 60 times larger, the Richmond response was also substantially more negative, (82% cf. 51%).
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Heathrow Airport to provide funding to set up pro-Heathrow expansion group
Heathrow Airport has announced that it will provide seed funding for a new community campaign "to provide a voice for the thousands of local people who support Heathrow". Plans for the campaign are in their early stages but it said it will seek to establish itself and start identifying and recruiting support before the end of the year. The announcement comes on the back of polling results Heathrow released today which claims almost half the people in the boroughs closest to the airport favour its expansion. The Populus telephone poll took place between 27th February and 4th May, and questionned 6,000 residents in Hounslow, Richmond, Hillingdon, Windsor and Spelthorne. It found that 46% support expanding Heathrow, compared to 43% who oppose expansion. They say 60% of residents feel positive towards Heathrow compared to 6% who feel negatively. In reality, it is well known that the results of a poll depend on the wording of questions, and how they are asked. Previous surveys have shown most residents are opposed to expansion - and many other residents should be questioned in other boroughs to get full data.
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Birmingham Airport unveils vision for growth, up to 70 million passengers per year, new business park etc etc
Birmingham Airport has unveiled long-term growth plans to challenge Heathrow’s supremacy and help to what they say will ‘rebalance the UK economy’. The plan would see Birmingham catering for 70m air passengers a year and 500,000 flights a year - both slightly more than Heathrow now. A business park for the Midland’s manufacturing sector is also proposed alongside the expanded airport site and has the backing of some business leaders and local councils. It, of course, predictably, promises huge numbers of jobs - no less than a quarter of a million. Paul Kehoe, the airport's CEO, expects that in 20 years’ time British air travel will double - though there is no evidence for this, and it is utterly at variance with the advice of the UK's Committee on Climate Change that UK air passengers could perhaps increase by 60% on 2005 levels by 2050. For the whole of the UK. Birmingham airport thinks transport infrastructure acts as an economic enabler, "a pathway to a virtuous cycle of growth", and "each major regional economy cannot succeed without its own meaningful international gateway." They believe "the UK economy is large enough to support at least four major ‘national’ airports – London, Midlands, North West, Scotland".
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Heathrow’s latest plan for southern 3rd runway “R3S” would be death to Stanwell Moor
Plans by Heathrow to build a third runway to the south west of the existing runways have met with dismay by those who would have their homes demolished, and their local area ruined. The new southern runway, already dubbed “R3S”, is regarded as both cheaper and more attractive than the northern option. Simon Calder says it would be used exclusively by smaller jets – the Airbus A320 and Boeing 737 series – which are somewhat less noisy than wide-bodied aircraft. Also that the eastern end of the new runway would be located about a mile further west than the existing two runways. Arriving and departing aircraft would therefore be significantly higher when flying over the capital. Heathrow apparently also says there would be no need for a 6th terminal, as the runway could be accessed from Terminal 4 (Skyteam alliance) and Terminal 5 (BA). Much of the land on which the new runway would be built is currently covered by airport-related buildings, including cargo warehouses and car parks. Simon Calder thinks these could be re-located "with little fuss". But the western end would encroach on Stanwell Moor, a post-war development less than a mile from Terminal 5, where residents have not been consulted in any way on the proposals.
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Redhill Aerodrome hard runway plans rejected
Councillors have thrown out plans for a hard runway at Redhill Aerodrome because it would "scar" the landscape. The aerodrome currently only has grass runways, so cannot operate in bad weather. But the aerodrome's owners, RAV, say they will appeal to the Planning Inspectorate. Both Tandridge and Reigate & Banstead councils decisively rejected the plans to build a 1,349m-long concrete runway . A planning officer's report had recommended councillors reject the scheme on the grounds of inappropriate development in the green belt. The new runway would have enabled the air field to increase air traffic movements by about 72% by flying in wet weather. The applicant had "dismally failed" to argue a case of special circumstances in order to gain approval to develop green belt. Opponents said 90% of households were against the hard surfaced runway, and a local councillor agreed with many residents in saying that there was "no merit" to the application which would "spoil the rural area" if given approval.
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Standard says Heathrow planning new runway to the south-west in Stanwell Moor area
The Standard reports that Heathrow is planning a new runway south-west of the airport, in one of three options that the airport will submit to the Airports Commission. The south-west runway would destroy the village of Staines Moor, and might be just north of the two large reservoirs, the George VI and the Staines reservoir. The Standard believes that Heathrow is no longer seriously considering a northern runway, at Sipson. A south-west runway might mean the demolition of fewer properties unless Stanwell itself was destroyed. Heathrow knows it can only get another runway if it can persuade enough people that the noise burden from extra flights will not be significantly larger. Therefore the airport has been trying to hard to convince those under flight paths that there will be improvements. A new runway to the south-west would increase aircraft noise for Feltham, Twickenham, Ham, Richmond Park and Wimbledon Common - where there would be intense opposition. Daniel Moylan, the Mayor’s chief aviation adviser, said: “Even to discuss this is to add a new blight to the lives of thousands of Londoners. It is further proof Heathrow expansion is environmentally and politically impossible.”
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Bigger terminal at revamped Southend Airport – now with increased numbers of Thomson and First Choice flights
Work is progressing on the Southend airport terminal extension, with sections opening in June, October, November and December. In addition to the easyJet flights, to some 12 holiday destinations, there are now also flights by Thomson and First Choice. These are expected to grow rapidly by next year. By summer 2014 Thomson and First Choice will be flying twice a week to Palma, and adding Ibiza to their schedule – tripling their service from Southend Airport in 12 months. The airport is selling its services on its fast processing of passengers, and it wants to attract many from the local catchment area, on grounds of convenience. The travel companies PR talks of ...enhancing "the holiday experience for our customers.” Stage 1 of the Southend Airport terminal became operational a year ago and is some 100 metres from the new railway station. The airport hopes passenger numbers will grow to 2 million/ year by 2020. There is the usual hype about some 300 jobs being created. The unfortunate reality is that by encouraging more Brits to holiday abroad, and spend their holiday money abroad, the net effect is that jobs are lost from the local economy, and the UK economy.
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Over 1,000 claims for compensation from Southend Airport due to loss in value of homes, because of aircraft noise
Southend Airport - which has had a huge and very rapid rise in the number of aircraft using the airport over the past year - has received more than 1,000 claims for compensation over aircraft noise. Homeowners nearby are concerned that the airport is reducing the value of their properties, due to the noise. The airport has said it will honour residents' compensation claims if it is proven their homes have lost value because of its activities. Jon Fuller, of local group SAEN (Stop Airport Expansion and Noise) said that estate agents are giving strong indications local residents must expect many thousands of pounds less than they expect when they sell their homes. Though house prices in the area are generally fairly buoyant, if houses are close to the airport or on the flight path prices are suppressed. The airport's CEO, Alistair Welch said people can make a compensation claim up to a year after the new terminal is finished. Surveyors, Michael Marriott, who are helping people submit claims say they can only claim for nuisances arising from the use of the runway extension. Nuisances arising from the use of the airport which do not depend upon the extension will be disregarded.
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Spanish group Aena to take over control of Luton airport from Spanish group Abertis
The Sunday Times reports that Luton airport operating concession, which is controlled by the Spanish infrastructure company, Abertis, is to be sold. The buyer is another Spanish company, Aena which owns other airports across the world. The airport is owned by Luton Borough Council. The airport's operating company is London Luton Airport Operations Ltd, which is in turn a wholly-owned subsidiary of an alliance between two Spanish-based companies: Abertis, being the majority shareholder, and AENA (Spain's equivalent of NATS) the minority. Aena has now exercised its right - as it has first refusal - to become the new owner of Luton under an agreement with Abertis. By passenger numbers, Luton is the UK's 5th largest airport, with some 9.6 million passengers in 2012 (around 9.5 million in 2011) and around 72,000 air transport movements, by low cost airlines. Abertis owned Cardiff and still owns Belfast International airport. This explains why there has been no news on the airport's planning application for some time.
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Questions asked by London Assembly about the BA plane with a burning engine flying over millions of Londoners
Richard Tracey, London Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth, has written to Heathrow authorities to ask why the BA aircraft with its engine ablaze was routed to fly back into Heathrow last week rather than being diverted elsewhere. Richard's questions followed worried enquiries from Wandsworth councillors Rosemary Torrington and James Maddan who represent the riverside Thamesfield ward on the flightpath. He received a prompt response Heathrow's Government Relations Manager: "The normal procedure in these circumstances if for the Captain to decide what is the safest course of action, and this is what happened in this case. This is an approved procedure." Richard Tracey commented that the damaged aircraft flew over Slough, Watford, parts of Essex, Battersea, Putney, Chelsea, Fulham, Hammersmith and Hounslow. "This is complete madness. Three or four million people on the ground were put at risk and thousands of travellers from Heathrow had their flights cancelled. Incoming flights were diverted to Stansted, Luton, Cardiff, even Manston". "We are now seriously considering taking this further , including talks with Heathrow and British Airways."