Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Souter in bid to buy Edinburgh airport
Sir Brian Souter, the founder of Stagecoach, is considering joining a consortium of Scottish investors to buy Edinburgh airport. The Scottish millionaire is thought to be drawing up plans after BAA appointed investment banks Citigroup and BNP Paribas to help sell the airport. The entrepreneur will not make any formal decisions until the sales document is sent out in January. Other parties interested in buying it are 3i; Aeroports de Paris, which owns Charles de Gaulle airport; and GIP.
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Response by GACC to the Gatwick Master Plan 2011
Gatwick Airport produced its draft Master Plan on 13th October. The consultation lasts till 13th January. GACC, the Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign, has produced a thoughtful, well researched and hard hitting response, picking out the many areas on which the master plan is deficient, where information is left out and where assumptions and forecasts are made which are unrealistic. The response highlights issues such as the absence of consideration given to rising oil prices, and to the amount of money taken out of the UK by holiday makers travelling abroad - the tourism deficit - which cuts UK tourism employment. It also questions dubious economic figures, for which the airport cannot produce evidence.
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Expensive and ineffective: Boris Johnson’s island airport (even Tories think so)
Writing in Left Foot Forward, John Stewart (Chair of AirportWatch) says the carefully-placed article today, exclusive to the Times, looks like an attempt to distance the government from the mayor’s speech to the IoD. which his aides have been using as proof that the idea of an estuary airport is gaining traction. With the announcement earlier by Maria Eagle that Labour no longer support a 3rd Heathrow runway, the industry is not clear what it should unite behind. Most city firms are not keen on an estuary airport.
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Thames Estuary airport plans delayed until next year
The final nail in the coffin of plans to build a huge Thames Estuary airport may not be hammered in until next year, according to The Times. It says ministers have ruled out making any decision on the issue until mid-2012 - and even then are likely to reject the proposals. Ministers are dubious of the viability of either scheme with the biggest stumbling block being the cost of the project, as well as adverse impacts on jobs and the economy round Heathrow.
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Campaigners challenge London Mayor over need more airport capacity in the South East
While the Mayor of London is expected to release a report arguing for new runways, campaigners question the need for more airport capacity. Boris is expected to argue that new airport capacity in the South East will help revive the economy. AirportWatch has produced figures which show that London has a greater number of flights to the world’s main business destinations than any of its European rivals, Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam.
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Transition Heathrow. We’re not going anywhere !
Transition Heathrow's "Grow Heathrow" project were due to be in court on 17th November, for a hearing about having them evicted from the site they are occupying at Sipson. The judge took into account the human rights arguments and adjourned the case to the higher authority of Central London County Court where a two day hearing will take place in a few months time. The owner of the site wants the land back, though it had been neglected for years, and Grow Heathrow has turned it into a thriving community venture.
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New chief executive – Declan Collier – for London City Airport
London City Airport chief executive, Richard Gooding, is to step down after 15 years and join the board as a non-executive director. Declan Collier, now chief executive of the Dublin Airport Authority, will take over in early 2012. Declan is involved with Airports Council International, where he is currently president, ACI Europe. Declan used to work at ExxonMobil in Ireland and abroad.
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BAA refuses to sell homes it bought in Sipson
BAA is being accused of "breaking the heart" of residents in Sipson, which is earmarked as the location for a 3rd Heathrow runway. Now Labour has joined the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats in declaring that a 3rd runway is "off the agenda", residents in Sipson say BAA still refuses to sell the homes it bought up in the area, as it has not yet ruled out the expansion. BAA offered to buy 300 homes and 75% of residents took up the offer, so BAA now rents the houses.
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Large demonstration in Paris against building of airport at Nantes
Thousands of demonstrators descended on Paris on Saturday, arriving there from the Nantes area by tractor or bicycle. They were protesting about the building of a new, huge, airport outside Nantes at Notre Dame des Landes. There is already Nantes Atlantique airport near Nantes. It plans go ahead, work will start in 2014 and it may be finished in 2017. Campaigners have commissioned an economic study by CE Delft, which shows there would be little economic benefit.
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Environmental Audit Committee publishes report on air quality, and says a 3rd runway at Heathrow would be impossible
The EAC's report says Ministers appear to be actively trying to dilute air quality safety standards to avoid EU fines. Business plans produced by the DfT and Defra do not even mention air quality. It says EU air quality limits for NO2 are not met at Heathrow and the surrounding area the forthcoming Sustainable Framework for UK Aviation and the forthcoming Aviation National Policy Statement must contain an explicit prohibition of a 3rd Heathrow runway.