Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Aberdeen Airport £7.2 million runway rehabilitation programme starting
A multi-million pound programme of work is about to begin at Aberdeen Airport, which will involve a complete resurface of the main runway. It starts on Sunday 29th March 2009 and should be completed by the end of October. The process involves removing the top layer of runway, in small areas at a time, and replacing the surface, which could add 15 years to its life. (BAA)
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English firm – MAG – set to bid for Scottish airport
The owner of Manchester Airport, Manchester Airports Group, is preparing to make a bid to buy either Glasgow or Edinburgh airport following a move by the UK's competition regulator to break up BAA's dominance of the aviation market. The result of a two-year Competition Commission inquiry is due tomorrow. It depends on whether they are successful in their bid for Gatwick. (Herald)
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Hoon admits figures error on Heathrow exaggerates benefit
The Government has admitted making an error in one of its forecasts on the net benefit of new runways at Heathrow and Stansted. But Geoff Hoon said the mistake did "not materially affect" evidence presented on the impact of expansion of the airport. The Heathrow 3rd runway and 6th terminal net benefit comes down from £5.4billion to £5.1billion. (Standard)
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Minister admits airports expansion blunder (Stansted)
The Government has admitted making an error in one of its forecasts on the net benefit of new runways at Stansted. Geoff Hoon said the mistake did "not materially affect" evidence presented on the impact of the expansion. The mistake - relating to the predicted 2009 GDP growth rate - means the Government has now issued lower net benefit figures for this particular passenger demand forecast - from £8.7bn to £8.6bn. (Peterborough Evening Telegraph)
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Pupils help out with British Airways project – Heathrow
BA has been granted £5,250 from the Forestry Commission, in association with Groundwork London, to plant 2500 trees in its parkland. Children from Heathrow and Harmondsworth Primary schools helped to plant the trees. The schools, the parkland’s Friends Group and volunteers from the airline will create a 5-acre wood which can be enjoyed by the local community. BA owns and manages the 240 acre Harmondsworth Moor parkland. Pity the 3rd runway would obliterate them.
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Glasgow Airport set to suffer 28% fall in business to North America
Glasgow Airport has struggled to replace the hole in its schedules caused by the collapse of Zoom last year, with the seating capacity on flights to North America dropping by more than a quarter this year, according to booking forecasts. Capacity on scheduled flights from Glasgow will fall by 10.6% between January and August this year, compared to the same period last year. It will fall at Aberdeen airport by 6.5%, and grow 5% at Edinburgh. (Herald)
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Competition chiefs check on bidders for Gatwick
The Competition Commission has begun to vet bidders for Gatwick to ensure that they are suitable candidates. The commission's analysis comes as easyJet, the low-cost airline, begins a High Court action today in an attempt to block price increases at the airport. Any consortium deemed to have insufficient funds or experience running an airport will be blocked from submitting a final bid. Those bids are due by the end of April. (Times)
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Heathrow Airport expansion – (Guardian letter)
A Conservative member of the London Assembly says the proposed 3rd runway at Heathrow should be scrapped not because the number of people flying dropped in 2008, but because demand for UK air travel exploded from 95.7 million passengers in 1991 to 238.8 million in 2007. This indicates that unless we say no to expansion and propose an alternative you get piecemeal expansion with a 5th terminal here, a 3rd runway there and so on.
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Private jets carry 2.7 passengers on average – Farnborough
Private jet passengers at Farnborough Airport cause more damage to the environment than users of any form of transport except space travel, according to green campaigners. Each aircraft using the airport has, on average, just two or three passengers on board. TAG's chief executive said that on a fairly typical day last week there were just 2.7 passengers per flight. Private jets generate as much as x8 the CO2 per passenger as taking the train.
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