Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Airtrack plans for link to Heathrow – inquiry deferred to later than autumn
Plans for a high-speed rail link offering travellersa faster route to Heathrow have been put on hold because of doubts over funding. Airtrack would have led to some level crossings becoming busier and raised fears it would impact on traffic congestion. BAA announced on its website in July the public inquiry planned for the Airtrack proposals had been put on hold "as a consequence of the Government’s announcement of a spending review in the autumn".
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London’s new airport “could be in Birmingham”
Birmingham airport is continuing its publicity drive to persuade people that it could become another London airport. The airport hopes high speed rail will cut the journey time from central London to Birmingham to 38 minutes, making it as easy to reach as Heathrow. Birmingham wants to be the "solution" to an alleged lack of airport capacity in the south east ... The airport's Chief Executive, Paul Kehoe, has huge ambitions for the airport.
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Gatwick Airport passenger numbers fell by -3.1% in July
Gatwick saw a -3.1% drop in passenger numbers in July compared with July 2009. Total passengers were 3,431,100 million approx. Air transport movements were down - 5.1%. Cargo was up +95%. About half Gatwick's passengers are on European scheduled flights, and these were down -3.3%. Flights to Ireland down -11.5%, European charter down -3.6%, North Atlantic down -12%. But long haul other than North America were up +9% (with +3.3% for year to date).
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Leeds Bradford Airport may be affected by high-speed rail
In his evidence to the House of Commons Transport Select Committee on 26th July, Philip Hammond said that Flights from Leeds Bradford Airport and Manchester Airport are likely to be affected if a high-speed rail link is introduced, and the need for domestic air services will be cut. These changes would have a transformational effect on the UK economy. It will also reduce the number of services to Amsterdam from regional airports.
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Temporary changes to Heathrow runway alternation for 6 weeks starting 13th Sept
For 6 weeks essential maintenance work will be taking place on taxiways connecting Heathrow's northern runway with the rest of the airfield. This means that Heathrow will not be able to alternate daytime use of the runways as published during this period, although night time alternation will be unaffected. On westerly operations, BAA will use the southern runway for the majority of arrivals and the northern runway for departures. (BAA)
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Belfast City airport inquiry delayed by noise pollution report
A public inquiry into the proposed runway extension at the airport is to be delayed as the Planning Appeals Commision said it cannot start until it gets more information from the airport about possible noise pollution. The airport wants to extend the NE end of the runway by 590m while retracting 120m from the SW. Belfast City Airport Watch says the airport must come clean about the dreadful, devasting impact that this is going to have on residents.
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Drop in Scots airport passengers in July and further decline of Glasgow
Edinburgh, Scotland's busiest airport, had a +0.6% rise in passengers in July, compared to July 2009, to 961,000 partly due to Ryanair. But Glasgow had a fall in passengers of - 3.6% to 789,000 and Aberdeen had a fall of - 4.1% to 270,000. Overall, BAA's UK airports had a rise in passengers in July of only +0.3%. BAA's 6 UK airports handled nearly 58.5 million passengers in the first seven months of this year - a 4.5% drop on the January-July 2009 total.
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Heathrow sets new passenger record in July to 6.7 million
Heathrow had its highest number of passengers during July, up +3.5% compared to July 2009 (which was itself up +0.9% compared to July 2008). For BAA's UK airports, passengers were up by only + 03% this July, and they were down yet again at Stansted, - 7.2%. Passengers were down -3.6% at Glasgow, down - 1.4% at Southampton, down - 4.1% at Aberdeen, but up 0.6% at Edinburgh. Air transport movements were down slightly - 0.4% for all BAA's UK airports.
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Gatwick plans to cut carbon by 50% !! (not including the flights of course)
Eureka ! Gatwick Airport has outlined its 10-year green plan, including a bid to cut its carbon emissions by 50% by 2020, compared to 2009 levels. (That of course ignores the airport's intentions to grow from 32 - 40 million passengers per year ... massively increasing carbon emissions). The airport has all sorts of good intentions like reducing waste sent to landfill, using less energy and less water, and is even being applauded by the Carbon Trust ..... heigh ho !
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EasyJet cuts flights out of Newcastle
EasyJet is axing its winter services from Newcastle to Murcia and Rome, as well as lowering the frequency of flights to a host of other destinations. As a result, it will now only base 3 airplanes on Tyneside, compared to the current 5, which will lead to 8 fewer pilots working in the region. EasyJet will also will only operate 3 aircraft on its summer routes next year.