Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
More objections to Dunsfold Park flights plan
Date added: 15 April, 2011
The prospect of Dunsfold Park being transformed into a new airport with unrestricted
private flights has sparked a rising number of local objections. Parish councils representing the villages most directly affected are considering
seeking specialist legal advice due to the implications. The airfield claims a permanent planning consent, granted in 1951 for unrestricted flying, still
stands and means the current cap of 5,000 annual flight movements carries no weight.
Click here to view full story...
Cardiff Airport’s future in spotlight as bmibaby exit
Date added: 15 April, 2011
Questions have been raised about the long-term future of Cardiff Airport after
Bmibaby's decision to halt operations there. Air lobby group Wales Air Network said Cardiff was on course to become the size
of a much smaller regional airport, such as Newquay. Bmibaby will pull out of Cardiff in the autumn. It employs 69 people at Cardiff, and blamed the economic climate for its withdrawal,
saying it would focus on airports with strong growth opportunities.
Click here to view full story...
Bmibaby to stop flying from Cardiff and Manchester
Date added: 14 April, 2011
Bmibaby has announced it will cease flying from Cardiff and Manchester airports
from the end of this summer. The airline said it needed to focus on its more established routes during the
current economic climate. As a result, four Bmibaby planes will be redeployed to Belfast, East Midlands
and Birmingham - the only UK airports from which it will fly. It now operates 40 flights a week from Manchester and 30 from Cardiff to European
destinations.
Click here to view full story...
Key meeting over Birmingham Airport runway now the A45 money is secured
Date added: 13 April, 2011
Now that the Government's Regional Growth Fund has allocated £15.7 million for
upgrading the A45, in order for the runway extension to go ahead, there will be
a meeting to decide on next moves. The airport will pay around £7 million itself.
There is the wild claim that the project "promises to create up to 3,400 new jobs
and deliver a £631 million boost to the local economy." From previous experience
elsewhere, this figure is wildly over optimistic.
Click here to view full story...
More State aid for under-taxed aviation industry as Birmingham Airport to benefit from £15.7 million for A45 upgrading
Date added: 12 April, 2011
Just 1 in 10 of the bids to the government's flagship regional growth fund have
been approved - 50 in total. One is on behalf of Birmingham City Council. It
is for £15.7 million towards upgrading the A45 around Birmingham Airport, "bringing
hopes of an enlarged runway closer to being realised." FoE said this shows "the hand of the Government and with its financial support of the aviation
sector how it can claim to be the Greenest Government ever is beyond us.”
Click here to view full story...
New Chief Exec at EMA has his eyes on long haul in expansion push
Date added: 12 April, 2011
Six months into his post as Managing Director, Brad Miller wants to see 4.25 million passengers using East Midlands Airport
next year. He wants to get flights from the US and the Indian sub continent.
He wants more business passenger, now just 8%. If he can add another two million
people who use the airport, we might get a new terminal. In the year to March 31st 2011, there were 4.06 million passengers (in 2008-9 there were 5.34
million)
Click here to view full story...
BAA sees traffic at Stansted and Southampton airports slump
Date added: 11 April, 2011
Colin Matthews, BAA chief executive, said the fragile state of Britain's economic
recovery has hit demand for air travel. He warned of the twin dangers posed to the aviation industry by fragile consumer
confidence and rising oil prices as it reported falling passenger numbers at Stansted. The leisure market remains weak, consumer confidence remains fragile. Stansted and Southampton had
year-on-year falls of 7.4% and 8.7% respectively.
Click here to view full story...
Sipson “hollow victory” – today blight, damaged community, families moved out
Date added: 7 April, 2011
A long article in the Indpenedent reports on how Sipson is today, a pale shadow
of its former self. Blight has done its work, and the community has been greatly
weakened. This was not helped by the generous sale packages from BAA, encouraging
those who could to sell up smf start lives elsewhere. Mow the pub, the shops and
the tradespeople struggle on with less customers. There are lessons for any other
area blighted by large infrastructure development.
Click here to view full story...
Uncharted territory: The implications of the enforced sale of one of BAA’s Scottish airports remain unclear
Date added: 3 April, 2011
The Scotsman muses on what effect selling off either Gatwick or Edinburgh would
have. It says In reality any benefits that come from a forced sell-off are likely
to go the way of the airlines rather than travellers, according to analysts. While
APD is linked to tickets and paid by passengers, airport operators do have leeway
when it comes to landing charges, passenger processing fees and rebates for opening
new routes, so making changes to services.
Click here to view full story...
Belfast City Airport challenge to proceed with judicial review in June
Date added: 1 April, 2011
A legal challenge to the lifting of a cap on passenger numbers at Belfast City
Airport is to proceed to a full hearing, a High Court judge has ruled. Rival Belfast International Airport was granted leave to seek a judicial review of
the decision to remove the annual seats for sale restrictions. A residents' group, Belfast City Airport Watch Ltd, has issued similar proceedings. The decision on passenger numbers was announced by Edwin Poots in December.
Click here to view full story...
