Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Theresa Villiers shuts door on third runway at Heathrow
Ms Villiers stressed at an aviation conference in London that, although there were divergences of opinion within the Coalition on aviation policy, the Government would look at all options for increasing capacity in the South East “with the exception of a third runway at Heathrow”. She said “The Coalition has always been clear that its doesn’t support a 3rd runway at Heathrow - one of the very first acts as government was to confirm that.” And “The quality of life aspect of a 3rd runway with up to 22,000 more flights over London every year would be massive and there’s no technological solution in sight to ensure planes become quiet enough, quickly enough to make this burden in any way tolerable. So we need another solution.” This could also potentially put the Government on a legal collision course with BAA, which cautioned it could go down the route of a judicial review if Heathrow was the one option barred from the public inquiry into future hub capacity.
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Nantes airport protest: Faut-il encore construire des aéroports ?
Several Europe Ecologie members have written on why they are opposing a new airport at Nantes, when the existing airport is not full. They argue against it on climate grounds, and on economic and social grounds. They say "If they persist, it will be in defiance of warnings from climatologists and economists, in addition to the contempt of the citizens. If, instead, they decide to abandon it, preferring to invest in training, colleges and high schools, or public transport, then we will highlight their political courage."
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Aviation minister Theresa Villiers defends Heathrow No 3rd runway policy
Theresa, speaking at an aviation conference in London, said a new third runway at Heathrow would have a "massive" impact on the quality of lives of residents near the airport. She stressed the coalition Government had "always been clear" that it did not support a third runway at Heathrow. Instead, she said "another solution" to south east England airport capacity was needed. At the conference, Colin Matthews produced figures showing that foreign airlines were shunning Heathrow because of capacity constraints at the airport. Mrs Villiers said: "The coalition has always been clear that it does not support a third runway at Heathrow. One of its very first acts as a Government was to confirm this. Heathrow is unique in Europe in terms of the magnitude of the noise impact it has on densely populated areas." She also said that "arguably the most well-connected city in the world, with its airports providing direct links to around 350 international destinations".
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CBI, aviation industry, BAA etc say (again …) UK will become a branch line without Heathrow 3rd runway
The Chief Policy Director of the CBI says “The UK is becoming a branch-line destination on the route map of global airlines." And for some reason she feels the need to also say that "Such is the threat to the UK's prominence that Dubai is set to overtake Heathrow by 2016 as the world’s largest international airport." So what? Dubai is more centrally located than London for global traffic. She also fears Heathrow will be overtaken by Paris or Frankfurt. The director of airline Etihad says (surprise surprise) “Heathrow will not be able to compete unless it opens another runway.” That's because he wants two more flights per day to Dubai. And BAA boss Colin Matthews will unveil new research showing 53% of airlines are increasing their flights out of other countries due to the severe capacity restraints at Heathrow. And more along those lines ....
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Traffic pollution kills 5,000 a year in UK, and aviation & shipping pollution kills another 1,800, says MIT study
A study by MIT in Massachusetts has found that combustion exhausts across the UK cause nearly 5,000 premature deaths each year. They also estimate that exhaust gases from aeroplanes cause a further 1,800 deaths annually, compared to 1,850 deaths due to road accidents. In total, about 19,000 deaths per year in the UK are caused by air pollution of all sorts - of which 7,000 are due to pollutants blown in from the continent. The findings challenge the traditional view that industrial plants are the main source of pollution, because traffic pollution occurs much nearer to people's homes than industrial emissions. One of the authors, Steven Barrett hopes soon to conclude a detailed assessment of the health impacts of either a 3rd runway at Heathrow or a Thames Estuary Airport.
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A third hunger striker has joined the two local farmers opposing Nantes airport
At Nantes, the two local farmers have completed 7 days of hunger strikes, and say they are in good health. They have been joined by a local left wing politician, so there are now three of them. There is a lot of local support for these farmers who are putting their health at risk to save their land and their employment. They say the maga airport project is a devourer of agricultural land and public money, for the most great advantage of VINCI (the company building the airport) shareholders. This project goes against the current social issues and current ecological good of the area.
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Jeff Gazzard: Let’s do the maths on third Heathrow runway CO2 emissions
Jeff Gazzard, in a letter in the Guardian, rejects the comment by Richard Deakin (head of NATS) last week that - and this is a literal quote - "the single biggest thing we could do to reduce CO2 in the UK is to build a third runway at Heathrow". Barely a credible statement. Jeff shows that the CO2 produced by aircraft stacking over London is perhaps 219,000 tonnes CO2 per year, compared to around 19 million tonnes per year from planes using Heathrow. So the stacking is about 1.16% of the total. And a 3rd runway would perhaps generate another 7 million tonnes per year. If so, the amount of CO2 wasted now in stacking would be about 3 - 4% of that produced by runway 3.
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Airport retail: rise and rise of the shopping centre, with an airport attached
A huge, and growing, proportion of the money made by airports is from retail. It seems that the industry expects significant increases in this spending over the coming years, and airports do all they can to get passengers to spend as much time as possible in retail, put retail outlets in arrivals, etc etc and devise means for them to buy goods for collection on their return, to avoid baggage problems. The industry expects most growth in the Far East, where women tend to spend a lot of designer brands. The airport retail industry finds passengers buy less when they are stressed by airport security waits and queues, and they buy more when calm and happy. Airports need a ticket as proof of identity, so they can monitor the types of travellers, and the routes, which generate the most cash. Seems the Chinese, the Russians and the Nigerians tend to spend the most. At Heathrow, the average passenger spends £4.35. But for fashion, the average BRIC passenger spends £45.50. No wonder BAA wants more.
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Proposed Thames Hub airport in ‘very worst spot’ say air traffic controllers, NATS
Thames estuary would be in the "very worst spot" for the south-east's crowded airspace, according to the boss of Britain's air traffic control service, Nats. Richard Deakin, chief executive of Nats, said the architects of the Thames Hub airport had not contacted them beforehand to discuss its feasibility. Norman Foster and partners unveiled the blueprints of the £50bn project last November. Deakin said the proposed site for the new airport, on the Isle of Grain, was directly under the convergence of major arrival and departure flight paths for four of London's five airports. He added: "We're a little surprised that none of the architects thought it worthwhile to have a little chat" with the air traffic controllers. The proximity of Amsterdam's Schiphol airport would also affect traffic patterns and force aircraft into more circuitous flight paths.
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Inspector dismissed Dunsfold Aerodrome appeal for Certificate of Lawfulness of Existing Use
People living near Dunsfold Aerodrome in Surrey were pleased to learn that, on 5th April, the Inspector ruled against the aerodrome. Dunsfold had appealed against a refusal by Waverley Borough Council to allow the the appeal by the aerodrome for a "Certificate of Lawfulness of Existing Use" (CLEUD). That would have meant there could be completely unrestricted use of the aerodrome, with no limits on number of flights, time of flights, amount of noise, amount of traffic generated, or anything else. Dunsfold based their case on what had been permitted on 1st July 1948 (the day the first Town and Country Planning Act became law). Though the Inspector has ruled against the appeal, in 2018 the current situation changes, and the aerodrome hopes to do more aircraft maintenance etc.