Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Paul Kehoe wants to move Birmingham Airport passenger terminals one kilometer
Paul Kehoe, of Birmingham Airport, wants to move the airport's passenger terminals more than half a mile east to be closer to the planned HS2 interchange. The airport’s runway and airside operations would remain where they are. He said this would free up space for more passengers and flights. He plans to start a consultation about moving the terminals. HS2 Ltd considered moving the new station closer to the airport but ruled it out because of the “very significant knock-on effects” it would have to the local community. Moving the terminals would need environmental impact assessments. Plans for HS2 involve building a new Birmingham Interchange station to connect to the airport.
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Berlin campaign against the opening of Berlin Brandenberg airport next year
John Stewart, Chair of AirportWatch and of HACAN, was in Berlin on Sunday 3rd June. He was speaking at a rally of over 1,000 people who demonstrated outside the town hall in Central Berlin against the new Berlin Brandenberg near Berlin, which is due to open next year. The airport was due to open this year, but this has been delayed for many months, due to safety issues. This delay has given the protesters against the airport in Berlin time to mobilise and really oppose the opening of the airport. With active protest taking place in Frankfurt against the noise from the new runway, and active opposition in Munich against a proposed 3rd runway at the airport, it is likely that a German AirportWatch will be set up, bringing together all the campaigns, and making them all more forceful in their concerted action.
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Carlisle airport’s application for 394,000 square foot freight centre delayed again
A decision on the future of Carlisle Airport has been delayed again. Stobart Group wants to build a 394,000sq ft freight-distribution centre and to resurface the runway ready for scheduled passenger flights and an airfreight service. Carlisle City councillors were due to consider the planning application this month, but it has been withdrawn from the development control committee’s agenda at Stobart’s request, as they want to submit more information. It is now up for review on 6th July. Planning officers were advising councillors to turn it down on the grounds that “the distribution centre appears to be primarily for road haulage rather than airport related
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Edinburgh Airport changes hands to Global Infrastructure Partners
GIP has now taken ownership of Edinburgh Airport. GIP also own Gatwick and London City aiports. It was bought for £805 million. The airport's current managing director, Jim O'Sullivan, has agreed to continue in his role until Gordon Dewar arrives, to be Chief Executive. Sir John Elvidge has become chairman of Edinburgh airport. GIP has improved efficiency at Gatwick airport, and there is expectation that they will do the same at Edinburgh.
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Newcastle Airport: Private firm to sell 49% stake
Copenhagen Airports is selling off its 49% stake in Newcastle Airport, but the seven local councils (LA7) which own the rest say their share is not for sale. These are Durham County, Gateshead, Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside and Sunderland Councils . Copenhagen’s Australian backers are pulling out of foreign airports and Newcastle is the last one it has a share in. They have owned part of it for 11 years. The leader of the LA7 group said “The airport is a major asset for the region, employing 3,000 people, and generating hundreds of millions of pounds for the North East every year." The airport has started trying to refinancing it debts. It has until December 2013 to repay a £320m loan taken out in 2006. It had 4.3 million passengers in 2011 compared to 5.6 million in 2007.
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Murad Qureshi on how Heathrow is expanding passenger numbers, but BAA don’t want Londoners to know it
In his blog, Murad Qureshi (Chair of the Environment Committee, of the London Assembly) writes that after a week of BAA propaganda last week in the pages of the Evening Standard you would be forgiven for thinking that Heathrow is not expanding – but it is! It may not be by the number of flights coming in and out of Heathrow but it certainly is by passenger numbers. The A380s have around 500 passengers each. At present Heathrow turns over 69 million passengers annually and once the redevelopment and construction of the five terminals are complete, it will be able to cope with 90 million passengers a year. This capacity is not something we hear about often but the fact is that Heathrow will be able to deal an extra 20 million passengers annually! This point is made well by AirportWatch yesterday in a letter to the Financial Times.
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Redhill Aerodrome to submit new runway plan – public consultation
The owners of Redhill Aerodrome, a grass airfield in Surrey, are to submit a revised application to build a hard runway. They want to replace its 3 grass runways with a concrete one, much longer. Its current longest runway is some 890 metre, and the proposed runway will have a total length of 1349 metres. This would give the aerodrome the potential to increase flights from 60,000 to 85,000 a year. The longer runway would allow business jets to use the aerodrome - some 20,000 per year. Tandridge and Reigate and Banstead Councils turned down its original application at the end of 2011. It now hopes its amended application addresses the reasons for refusal before. More than 1,000 people signed a petition against the original plans, saying they would cause unacceptable noise and pollution. Its green belt site straddles the border between Tandridge and Reigate and Banstead.
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AirportWatch letter in the FT: Focus on filling existing Heathrow terminals
Contrary to the impression often given by the aviation industry, Heathrow is not full. While its runways are close to capacity, it has the terminal capacity to accommodate another 20m passengers each year. BAA is failing to exploit the opportunities this presents. BAA’s focus should instead be on working with government to develop market mechanisms that encourage the airlines to take advantage of this spare terminal capacity in order to bring more intercontinental business passengers to London through the use of larger aircraft. This will not happen as long as BAA remains so focused on a third runway.
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Munich protest banner drop off the spectacular Stadhaus – “No Third Runway”
Protesters from Plane Stupid Germany have performed a stunning protest against the proposed third runway at Munich airport. They displayed two large vertical banners beside the huge clock, just above the Munich Stadhaus world-famous Glockenspiel. One banner reads "KOA Dritte" - No Third Runway. The other reads "Weltstadt" with a heart, as Munich has as one of its slogans, World City With a Heart. The protest is about runway plans, without a democratic referendum, and that the airport has tried to influence the decision process by contributing about €1 million to the pro-runway campaign. The. The new runway would demolish a village, ruin the homes of many people and devastate a huge area. Plane Stupid also fear the contribution to climate change, as the airport is the largest CO2 emitter in Bavaria.
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Timebomb ticking in Thames Estuary could put Boris Island plans in jeopardy. SS Richard Montgomery.
Perhaps as part of the Standard's crusade to push for a 3rd Heathrow runway, they have written about the wreck of the SS Richard Montgomery, just off shipping lanes and close to the coast of the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary. This is full of 7,000 tonnes of wartime, unexploded, explosives (over 2,000 cases of cluster fragmentation bombs, nearly 600 500lb armour piercing bombs and at least 1,000 additional 1,000lb bombs). The ship would have to be removed or neutralised (how?) if a massive airport was to be built. The ship is nicknamed the £1 billion time bomb based of the amount of damage it could cause in the event of an explosion. It is estimated that a blast could trigger a tidal wave up to four feet high, destroying some coastal communities.