Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Boris: dead against 3rd Heathrow runway, but wants runway at Stansted or Gatwick reconsidered (while waiting for the estuary airport)
Interviewed by Allegra Stratton, of BBC's Newsnight, Boris Johnson said London should follow Hong Kong's example and build a new airport. And quickly. Boris Johnson has accused the government of trying to kick a decision about a new airport into "the long grass" until past the next election, and that this was down to the coalition leadership trying to "appease their ideological environmental wing" of both parties. Boris said his colleagues in central government appear to be "tip-toeing back towards the electrified fence of the third runway," and says that if they go ahead they will get "the most powerful shock". He opposes a 3rd Heathrow runway, but urges the government to discard the coalition agreement and consider expanding at Stansted or Gatwick as an interim solution ahead of any new airport built in the South East.
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Heathrow night flights: Ministers to consider economic impact of sleep loss
The government says it will consider the economic impact of sleep disruption on people living near Heathrow in any review of night flights to the airport. Current rules, under which an average of between 14 and 16 flights land before 6am each day, were recently extended until October 2014. A Minister pledged to balance business and noise concerns in future. Campaigners are pressing for a ban on flights arriving before 6am - which come mainly from the Far East and the west coast of America - and a phased reduction in arrivals before 6am and 7am. Susan Kramer said: "Local residents are woken at 4am onwards not because of capacity issues at Heathrow but because of limits on departure schedules at other airports." HACAN commented: "We have, frankly, never believed the argument made by the airline industry that if 16 night flights were moved to daytime then the economy of London and the UK would collapse,"
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BAA given last chance to appeal Stansted sale
At the Royal Courts of Justice in London, BAA was told it could make its case for the final time before the Court of Appeal. No date has been set for a hearing. This means the 3-year long battle by BAA to avoid having to sell Stansted drags on, yet again. The legal battle started back in March 2009 with a Competition Commission ruling that ordered the break-up of BAA. It has already had to sell Gatwick and Edinburgh airports, and BAA argues that the aviation market has changed substantially since the original ruling. It also stresses that Stansted does not compete with its only other remaining London airport, Heathrow. The airport's MD says the ownership battle had hampered the airport’s ability to grow and attract more airlines, and it has lost about a quarter of its passengers since 2007.
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Finally after a week of pro-Heathrow aviation spin the Standard, they publish some letters against
Last week saw a series of stunningly one-sided pieces in the Evening Standard, putting the pro-Heathrow expansion case with no attempt at balance - and unquestioningly regurgitating aviation industry lobbying without any critical analysis. The last one on Friday was by Tim Yeo, saying that he now backs a Heathrow third runway. But this article contained so many really bizarre, and mis-informed statements, (such as claiming that planes will be so quiet that people will not notice them flying overhead at night,and that a third Heathrow runway will not increase UK emissions) that the Standard could see it was time to put a few of the opposing arguments. There are today 4 letters in the Standard, including one from AirportWatch. The letters are on CO2 and the ETS; the phenomenal connectivity that Heathrow already has; the fallacy of quiet aircraft in future; and the dismal air quality around Heathrow already.
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Telegraph, following the Standard, gives Colin Matthews a good plug. But it’s not well received.
In a Telegraph article, looking just like a re-hash of the PR splurge last week in the Evening Standard, Colin Matthews of BAA gets to put his point of view about wanting a third Heathrow runway, yet again. Colin Matthews says all the usual things he generally says, about doom, gloom etc, unless he gets another runway .... But there are a large number of comments under the article, which appear to be hugely against the line Colin Matthews is peddling. The commentators appear to see straight through the BAA self-interest, and attempts to confuse. One comment says: "BAA first claim that a hub airport "is critical to the UK", but then explain that airlines do prefer hubs over point-to-point because it keeps "their planes full". So the truth is that hubs are good for airlines, NOT the UK." Which rather sums it up.
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Government adviser suggests radical Heathrow Airport plan: ‘Forget a third runway, turn it into a garden city’
Former government adviser Graeme Bell says it is time to “reinvent” the Heathrow site that is increasingly ill-suited to the needs of a modern hub airport. In a new report - called Heathrow Garden City -he suggests the airport should be bulldozed and a new airport created elsewhere. The five square mile airport site, according to Me Bell, would be the perfect location for a new sustainable community of more than 30,000 residents in the traditions of Hampstead Garden Suburb and Welwyn Garden City. It could become “the biggest redevelopment site in Europe”. There would be parks, allotments, open water etc etc. Talking of the current level of noise and air pollution around Heathrow, Mr Bell said ‘This is a really bad use of a piece of land inside the M25.’
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The campaign against Munich’s possible 3rd runway, from Young Friends of the Earth, Bavaria
Young Friends of the Earth Bavaria have written about why they are opposing the planned third runway, and why it is not needed - as well as the environmental damage it would do. Their short briefing on what is happening at Munich gives useful detail. The plan for the runway is only to that there will never be delays of more than 4 minutes to flights, even if numbers double, over the next 20 to 30 years. Almost unbelievable to build a runway for that, especially if flight numbers are not growing - and as the airport is losing money and has debts now of €2.7 billion already. Munich airport is already the largest carbon emitter in Bavaria, emitting about 10% of Bavaria's CO2. In Germany all aviation issues are planned and decided at a local and regional level by town halls, not at a national level. So, until this year, there has been a lack of a national debate around aviation. But this has now changed.
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Durham Tees Valley airport applying to Regional Growth Fund for freight distribution centre
An expansion plan is being drawn up for loss-making Durham Tees Valley Airport and will be handed to the Government within weeks. The airport is preparing a bid to the regional growth fund to develop a 250-acre south side of the airport, for freight services/distribution (does not say whether any air freight is included). The application will include a new internal road, installing gas, electricity and drainage connection, and perhaps new buildings. Peel Holdings Ltd, the airport’s owner (owns 80%), has to submit the bid to the £1bn fund by the deadline of June 13th. There has been an 80% fall in the number of passengers since 2006, from 912,000 down to 190,000 in 2011. The focus on freight confirms the expectation the airport will find it difficult to increase passenger numbers. However, their airport's air freight tonnage has plummeted to almost nothing in the past two years
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Shock of discovery of Luton Airport plan to expand up to 30 million passengers (not just 18 million)
Herts County Council has just discovered that Luton Airport’s owners - Luton Borough Council - are hatching plans to increase capacity not just to 18m passengers per year – but to 30 million. HCC says this is frightening. 30 million is triple what the airport currently handles. Their pre-application to the National Infrastructure Planning body refers to a planning application as early as end of 2013. The airport (and its owners, Luton BC) have indicated from the start that they would eventually like to see the capacity increased to 30m passengers per year. Yet the planning consultation they put forward publicly only talks of 18m. The current airport operators (a different company) made it very clear that even this would constitute over-investment, and that a realistic maximum for this “local” airport would be more like 16m passengers per year. To aim for 30 million would require the applicaiton to be called-in by government.
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Belfast schools hit by City airport’s noise proposals
Belfast City airport has submitted proposals that would replace an existing passenger cap with one controlling noise. This will increase the amount of total noise experienced by those near flight paths. Belfast City Airport Watch (BCAW) believes this would mean that 21 schools would potentially be subjected to aircraft noise at a level above that recommended by the WHO, and 9 would would potentially experience aircraft noise at a level which the UK government regards as serious. Up to 46,000 people in Belfast and north Down would also be affected at levels well above those recommended by WHO. BCAW says “Under these proposals, the City Airport could become one of the noisiest in the UK, in terms of its effect on schools and the local population. There is a robust body of research which shows that high levels of aircraft noise impact negatively on children’s education and on people’s health." The Department of the Environment is currently carrying out a public consultation into the airport proposals.