Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
How much profit do airports make from their retail activities, rather than flying?
Heathrow got 21.3% of its income from retail in 2010, compared to 53% from aeronautical. On average each Heathrow passenger spent about £5.70 (maybe £5.90) at the airport, with women spending more than men (!). BAA data say frequent fliers spend more than infrequent fliers. In the year 2010/2011 Gatwick airport made £115.6m from retail, and another £51.7m from car parking, with an average of £5.80 spent on retail per passenger. Stansted retail spending per passenger is about £4.00 to £4.20. In the year 2010/2011 Heathrow made about £380 million per year on retail, Gatwick about £115, and Stansted net retail income fell from £79.8m in 2010 to £73.9m. Manchester made about £70 million on retail, with about £3 per passenger.
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Durham Tees Valley Airport’s future secured by takeover by Peel Investments
Previous owners Peel Airports has sold its 75% majority share-holding in the airport to Peel Investments (DTVA). So the airport can continue in business and get over its current crisis. Peel Airports is 65% owned by Vantage Airport Group (formerly Vancouver Airport Services) and 35% by The Peel Group. Peel Investments is now the majority shareholder in the airport, with the rest of the shareholding (25%) continuing to be owned by the six local authorities, including Hartlepool Borough Council. Peel Airports Limited, (as different part of the Peel Group) continues to be a major shareholder in Liverpool John Lennon Airport and Robin Hood Airport in Doncaster. Durham Tees Valley airport had less than 22% the number of passengers in 2011 as it had in 2006.
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GIP and 3i frontrunners to buy Edinburgh Airport
Global Infrastructure Partners (which owns Gatwick and London City Airport), 3i and a consortium backed by US private equity giant Carlyle Group are due to take an early lead in the race for Edinburgh Airport as the deadline for first-round bids expires this week. The airport is valued at £400m-£600m, and JP Morgan is also interested. Stagecoach boss Sir Brian Souter has ruled himself out of bidding in the first round, though may get involved later through his Souter Investments vehicle. Arcus Infrastructure Partners, owner of Forth Ports in Edinburgh, was named as another potential buyer but is also believed to have decided against. Bidders say the asset is attractive as it has been underdeveloped by BAA.
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MAG could consider other acquisitions if it fails to buy Stansted.
Manchester Airports Group could consider a swoop for a European or American airport if it fails to buy Stansted. The 10 Greater Manchester councils, which jointly own MAG, will be asked in the coming weeks to approve plans to seek external investment to fund a potential acquisition. Talks are already under way with potential investors and MAG hopes to narrow down the list of serious contenders over the next couple of months. MAG is not looking at a Scottish airport but is looking at Stansted “in some detail,” due to its similarity in size to Manchester and its potential for further growth.
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Chancellor George Osborne in airport meetings with backers
It has emerged, through FoI, that Chancellor George Osborne and his officials held a string of private meetings with the backers of plans for a new airport in Kent, including the London Mayor Boris Johnson. There were also regular contacts with Foster and Partners and Halcrow. The previously undisclosed contacts stretched over a 4-month period between May and August last year. The government has refused to say why the meetings were held and who asked for them, saying that it is not in the public interest to do so. The meetings reinforce speculation that the Treasury and the Chancellor have been instrumental in pushing the government towards backing the highly contentious idea of a new hub airport after David Cameron had, a year earlier, publicly vetoed the prospect.
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Luton Airport expansion consultation delayed by a week
The public consultation by Luton Airport and Luton Borough Council to get the public's views on the proposed expansion of Luton Airport has been delayed by a week. They will be looking to double the capacity of the airport up to 18m passenger per annum, with a view to submitting a planning application in April. The 6 week consultation will now start on Monday 12th Feb. A number of exhibitions are to be held in conjunction with the consultation, and some have been rescheduled.
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Leader of Swale Borough Council says North Kent would become “strip of tarmac” under airport plans
Swale Council Leader warns that if an airport was built in the Thames Estuary, the area would become a massive house building site. There are not enough houses to accommodate people moving to the area for jobs at the proposed hub. “We would have to tarmac over the whole of north Kent to provide housing.”
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Leeds Bradford Airport bosses vow to change Canada Geese cull
Airport chiefs, who ordered a cull of 10 Canada Geese at a Leeds beauty spot, YeadonTarn, have said they find other ways to control the population. There was no local consultation about the cull beforehand.Food and Environment Research Agency officers shot the flock, which was deemed “a significant risk to aircraft”, in September by closing the green space to dog walkers in the early hours. Plans for an £11million expansion of the airport, which could be completed by this summer, had sparked further fears of culls. A meeting took place recently between the airport and angry local residents.
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Birmingham Airport to get solar panels, to save 22 tonnes CO2 per year – compared to the 900,000 tonnes CO2 the airport is responsible for each year
Birmingham Airport is getting some solar panels on its terminal roof, so will be emitting a tiny bit less carbon for its electricity generation. The 200 solar PV panels will perhaps save some 22 tonnes of CO2 per year, while perhaps generating some 40,000 kWh per year. Paul Kehoe says "...Managing our greenhouse gas emissions is a high priority for the company and we're always seeking new opportunities to work with partners to reduce our carbon footprint." So let's put the CO2 savings into context. Planes using Birmingham airport in 2010 were responsible for about 0.9 million (= 900,000) tonnes of CO2. The DfT's forecasts for passengers and carbon emissions by flights using the airport put Birmingham, on its lowest forecasts, as emitting 1.7 million tonnes of CO2 per year by 2030, or emitting 4.3 million tonnes of CO2 on its central forecast. So the 20 tonnes is lovely, but putting out publicity about this being significantly green is disingenuous.
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Heathrow cancels 50% of flights – more than the 30% it planned – due to 3 inches of snow
Heathrow airport, which says it operates at over 99% of capacity, planned to cancel 30% of flights due to the accurately forecasted snow that fell on Saturday night. However, it has cancelled 50%, saying this is partly due to the threat of freezing fog. There is a great deal of disruption to passengers, and cynics or those fond of conspiracy theories are wondering whether Heathrow has made the most of its problems due to the snowy conditions to improve its case for a third runway, or other increases in flights. Since the snow problems Heathrow had in winter 2010 BAA has increased its Heathrow snowplough fleet by 68 to 185 at a cost of £32.4 million. But still Heathrow seems to have fared much worse with just 3 inches of snow than other airports like Gatwick, Stansted, Luton etc. No doubt BAA will once again blame the chaos on there being no third runway.