Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Farnborough Airport Inquiry: carbon emissions by business aviation worse
CPRE Hampshire and local residents have given evidence. This was the 1st test case of its kind since the Heathrow High Court judgement in March. CPRE’s case is that the contribution of ‘business aviation’ passengers to climate change is far greater than has been generally recognised. The average plane-load for a typical Farnborough business jet is just 2.5 passengers, so each one is responsible for more CO2 than by any other means of transport.
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Gloucester airport: light plane crashes five metres from road
A 72 year old pilot narrowly escaped disaster when his light aircraft crash-landed at Gloucestershire Airport. It smashed into a hedge, which cushioned the impact, 5 metres from the busy Bamfurlong Lane as it attempted to land at the Staverton airfield - 50 metres from the main runway. The pilot was not seriously injured. Staverton airport handle between 70,000 and 90,000 flights a year. The Air Accident Investigation Branch will be investigating. (bnet)
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Lydd Airport Action Group welcomes Public Inquiry
LAAG welcomed the decision of the Secretary of State for DCLG, Eric Pickles, to call in Lydd Airport’s planning application for a public inquiry. The case for a public inquiry was compelling as the application satisfied 4 of the 5 government criteria to determine if a inquiry should take place. These include conflict with national policy on important matters; significant effects beyond the immediate locality; and substantial regional or national controversy.
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David Lees new MD at Southampton airport, as Kevin Brown moves to Edinburgh
David Lees has been appointed the new managing director of Southampton Airport, after three years working there. He will take on the role from July 31 and replaces the Kevin Brown, who is is currently managing director of Aberdeen and Southampton Airports. Kevin Brown now takes control of sister BAA airport Edinburgh. The move follows last month's announcement that Gordon Dewar - current Edinburgh MP - is moving to be chief executive of Bahrain Airport.
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California Public Employees Retirement System buys 12.7% stake in Gatwick
The US’s biggest state pension fund has confirmed it was buying an equity stake in Gatwick airport. It will buy a £106m ($157m) stake from Global Infrastructure Partners, the buy-out group. GIP, which bought Gatwick from BAA last year for just over £1.5bn, is selling stakes to the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (Adia), one of the world’s leading sovereign wealth funds, and South Korea’s National Pension Service, the fifth-biggest pension fund in the world.
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CAA to investigate east Belfast roof tiles incident:
The CAA has confirmed that it will be investigating one of the recent incidents in which, it appears, low-flying aircraft dislodged roof tiles in east Belfast. The CAA is to investigate the most recent incident which happened at Parkgate Drive at approximately 10pm on Tuesday, 8th June. The CAA says it will specifically examine whether or not the aircraft in question was flying too low. The residents think they were, but the airport denies this.
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London Assembly opposes any increase in flights at BAA’s London airports.
The London Assembly has unanimously called for a ban on any increase in the number of flights operating from BAA’s London airports. It expressed concern that following the Government’s decision to reject a 3rd runway at Heathrow, BAA may try increase the number of flights from its airports by the back door, by operational and regulatory changes like allowing mixed mode operations and increasing the number of night flights. (These would be strongly opposed).
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Hammond defends Heathrow 3rd runway decision
The transport secretary has said the scrapping of a proposed third runway at Heathrow does not mean that the government is "anti-aviation". At the first transport questions of the new Parliament, Philip Hammond said he wants to make Heathrow "better not bigger". Jim Fitzpatrick said while there is "spare capacity in Paris, Schiphol and Frankfurt, and Dubai has built 6 runways, we run the risk of being disadvantaged ..."
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New talks on increasing capacity at Heathrow
Campaigners against Heathrow noise reacted with suspicion as the Government announced a task force for "better not bigger" airports in the South-East. This is set to reopen the debate about whether more flights can be squeezed out of Heathrow's existing runways, with one of the business groups represented saying that improving the airports was a "tall order" with current capacity. A new South East Airports Task Force has been set up, with AEF a member.
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British Airways Launches New Ibiza Route from London City
BA has launched its new BA CityFlyer direct service to Ibiza, allowing passengers to fly direct from the Docklands to the Balearics for holiday breaks. This is not a business flight. The flight takes 2 hours and 15 minutes on the new Embraer 190 aircraft. Flights depart and return on a Monday, Friday and Sunday. For July and August only, a Wednesday service has also been added.