Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
More BA routes from Heathrow …. to key business destinations …. Palma and Ibiza
Anyone reading the statements from Heathrow about the capacity crisis and how there is a need for more flights to the emerging markets might be puzzled by recent news from British Airways. Back in February 2012 Willie Walsh said he planned to expand IAG into lucrative emerging markets, such as Latin America and he hoped to use the extra Heathrow take-off and landing-slots from BMI to accelerate growth into emerging markets. But BA has now announced that it is putting on new flights from Heathrow to Palma (Majorca) from March, and to Ibiza. These are in addition to Mexico and Alicante, as well as Bologna and Marseilles announced earlier. There are also new flights to Leeds Bradford (and a mention of links for business connnections) and a new flight to Chengdu in China, announced earlier, as well as Almaty (Kazakhstan), Dublin, and Seoul among others, where there is likely to be a business component. It is hard to believe there is much business benefit from weekend flights to Alicante or Palma or Ibiza.
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Protests stall France airport take-off – report by Al Jazeera on the Nantes airport battle
Al Jazeera reports that for the past several months, the French forest of Rohanne has been a battlefield as riot police and protesters from all over Europe have faced each other over a plan to cut down centuries-old trees and build a massive airport. Local residents and environmentalists seeking to protect the forest have set up vinyl tents, wooden huts, camper vans, and even treehouses to impede the airport’s construction. Some have brought families and lived in commune-style conditions. In November between 13,500-40,000 people arrived at the site to protest against the planned airport. A few hundred protesters remain at the site. A court ruled in December that French police could forcibly remove squatters from camps in the Rohanne. A judge’s ruling has postponed airport construction until June 2013 to allow a review to be completed. Dialogue between the two sides to end the stand-off is necessary, but that will not happen unless riot police are ordered to stand down. There is lots more detail.
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Grow Heathrow campaigners fight eviction at High Court
A group of young people, calling themselves "Grow Heathrow", set up a market garden and informal community on squatted land in Sipson in 2010. The land had been derelict and was not being used by its owner, Mr Malik. He has been attempting to remove the squtters, who are environmental activists, for the past two years or more. The case for their eviction went to the High Court on Tuesday 15th January. Grow Heathrow say their case is an important challenge to the idea that landlords can leave land empty in the middle of a housing crisis. Mr Malik was given the judgement of possession in July. The basis of Grow Heathrow's appeal is Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which is the right to have a home and family life. On the one hand, Grow Heathrow say they have added "social value" of the garden while it is wrong to keep the owner out of land for which he had paid a six-figure sum. Given the widespread importance of the issues raised by the case, Lords Justice Ward, Lloyd and Toulson are expected to reserve their decision until a later date - probably 14th February.
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Luton Airport expansion master plan consultation ‘flawed and misleading’
London Luton Airport Operations Ltd submitted its planning application to expand the airport, to the local authority (which is also the airport's owner) Luton Borough Council, on 7th January. The deadline for comment is the 18th February. Luton Airport released its assessment of the recent Master Plan consultation, in which is gave the impression that some 65% of those consulted were in favour of the airport expansion. In reality, 612 votes were from airport employees, airlines, airport union members and businesses associated with the airport who, unsurprisingly, were 100% in favour of expansion. Only 450 responses came from the public, and those were 73% opposed. There were 94 from responses that were undecided. The fact that 29 of the 47 responses from stakeholder organisations, a group which included local councils, were 'undecided' indicated that the plans "didn't have enough information" as the master plan did not include an environmental statement or details of where the aircraft would be flying. It simply proposed they would be doubling the capacity of the airport from about 9.5 million passengers and increase the number of flights by 60%.
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Boris Johnson orders £3 million feasibility study on London mega-hub airport – Thames estuary or Stansted
Boris has ordered a feasibility study costing £3 million to be carried out, to see whether Stansted could cope if developed. A super high speed rail link cutting journey times to London to 25 minutes would also be built to support its growth - in Boris's plan. He proposed the study in December and then in January published the criteria for his submission to the Airports Commission on the matter. These criteria include economic, infrastructure, airspace , surface access, environment (it gets a mention) and deliverability. The mayor’s transport adviser, Daniel Moylan, who will lead the feasibility study, said their initial analysis would mean looking in greater detail at 3 possible locations: inner Thames estuary, outer estuary and Stansted. The consultation on the criteria will run until February 8th. In typical Boris fashion, he says such a huge hub airport would solve the UK's aviation problems for 500 years. Difficult to take any of it seriously, especially after Boris's recent climate sceptic pronouncements - he is not a believer in anthropogenic climate change, and backs Piers Corbyn.
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Birmingham Airport consultation on new flight paths from 2014 due to runway extension
Birmingham airport's runway extension was started in November, and is likely to be ready by early 2014. There is now a Birmingham airport consultation on new flight paths, that will be needed for the extended runway. The 3-month consultation has started over new departure routes which would need Civil Aviation Authority approval. The new routes have been designed using the latest technology that allows aircraft to fly more precisely (a sort of aircraft sat nav). As the runway will be extended further south, there will be a change to the routeing of aircraft after taking-off to the south. This is due to the earliest point that aircraft can turn after departure also moving further to the south, affecting the routeing of aircraft which will mean a change for some communities. There are already some very annoyed residents, who will now suffer a lot more noise. They are not reassured that planes are theoretically a bit less noisy than they used to be, as they are now larger and heavier, and more frequent. No date is given for the end of the consultation, but is is probably around the end of March 2013
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Luton airport planning application submitted – to demands that it should be called in
Luton airport has submitted its planning application for expansion up to 18 million passengers, to its local authority, Luton Borough Council. However, Luton Borough Council is also the owner of the airport, and so local people are asking that the application should be called in. The application does not include a runway extension, but does include changes to taxiways, access roads, parking aprons, car parks and changes and extensions to terminal buildings. The work proposed is focused primarily on removing the bottlenecks which affect throughput of passengers and planes at peak times. By dualling the access roads and increasing the security check lanes, passengers can arrive and be processed more quickly. By extending the taxiways and adding more piers, planes can be filled up can get into position for takeoff more quickly. And by adding more customs and baggage reclaim facilities, arriving passengers can be moved more rapidly through the terminal. There are 250 documents in the application, making it difficult for local people to assess. The consultation period ends on 18th February. There is local concern about the amount of extra aircraft noise there will be, if Luton is allowed such significant expansion. There are also serious concerns about road congestion - currently about 80% of the airport’s passengers travel to it by road.
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Further fire safety problems at Berlin Brandenburg Airport mean it cannot open in October, so delayed till unknown date in 2014
Berlin's Brandenburg airport was initially due to open in June 2012. It has problems with fire safety, smoke extraction system, and fresh air supply in the event of fire. Therefore the opening was put off till October 2013. It has now been announced that the airport will now open on an unknown date in 2014. Based on the previous timetable, construction work was due to be completed by May 2013 to allow a 5-month period for trial operations before the official opening. There may be other technical problems as well, such as on baggage handling. When completed, the airport will take over from the ageing Tegel and Schoenefeld airports. It is expected to be able to eventually handle up to 27 million passengers a year, but this figure has been reduced from the initial figure of 45 million. The cost of the project has risen, from an estimated £1.6 billion to more than £3.2 billion and the latest delays are likely to increase the costs further. A growing chorus of critics is calling for the city's mayor, Klaus Wowereit, to step down over the matter.
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easyJet changes Gatwick flights to take off more steeply above East Grinstead to cut noise
easyJet has agreed to changes so flights taking off from Gatwick in an easterly direction will climb at a sharper incline than before, and climb higher much faster. This is after East Grinstead town council intervention. The change will reduce noise levels on the ground in the north east of East Grinstead. Complaints there about aircraft noise had risen by 500%, with 2,000 households in the Imberhorne suffering from early morning and late evening noise disturbance. It appears that easyJet was flying at a lower altitude over East Grinstead than other airlines.
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Commission to start dialogue on the future Nantes airport – but expects it will be difficult
After a week of sometimes violent clashes between opponents and police on the site of the future airport, near Nantes, Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault announced on November 24 the creation of a commission, which will begin its hearings this Friday in Nantes. The hearings will continue till March 2013, and its report will take the form of proposals to the Prime Minister that will be made public. The commission will be chaired by Claude Chéreau - an experienced negotiator. ACIPA, the main opponents, have not yet agreed to take part, but can decide to do so over the next few months. They need as a prerequisite for their cooperation with the commission in early 2013 "the withdrawal of police forces from the area," they need them to "stop evictions and destruction" and especially they want "a written confirmation that it is indeed possible to without restriction tackle substantive issues of the case." The group that plans to build the airport, Airports Great West (AGO), a subsidiary of Vinci, say the talks cannot question the airport project.