Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Huge boost for Blackpool Airport – runway improvement
The airport hopes to have more long haul flights due to a £1m cash injection. The money is being used to upgrade the runway following the introduction of the controversial Airport Development Fee (ADF) at £10 per passenger. The airport wants services from Blackpool to be extended to the eastern and southern Mediterranean. There will be a partial re-laying of the runway, taxiway and the apron where planes are parked, starting on 23rd Feb. (Blackpool Gazette)
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Council objects to Robin Hood Airport cargo flights
Armthorpe Parish Council has objected to plans to lift restrictions on night-time cargo flights at Robin Hood Airport. The airport wants to overturn a ban on noisier aircraft such as Boeing 747s flying at nigh, to bring it in line with other airports that accept cargo flights. A consultation period closed on January 30th. The application is now due to go before Doncaster Council's planning committee next month. (UK Airport News)
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Leeds Bradford International Airport Unveils Terminal Development Proposals
Leeds Bradford International Airport has unveiled a £28m development of its passenger terminal. LBIA's terminal development proposals reveal a two storey extension to the landside face of the existing terminal, together with internal modifications to the current building. This major investment by the airport's shareholders, Bridgepoint, follows their purchase of the airport in May 2007. LBIA will shortly prepare a planning application. (Routes online)
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Manston – Controversial airport plans fail to take flight
Controversial plans to allow aircraft to take off and land at a Kent airport from 6am until 11.30pm have gone down like a lead balloon among environmental campaigners. Councillors are expected to decide next Thursday whether to alter a Section 106 environmental agreement - a move that would allow dozens of night-time flights to and from the airport every month. An as-yet-unnamed company hopes to fly 747 aircraft into the airport up to 11 times a week. (Extra)
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Government is ‘running scared’ of Heathrow climate test
The South East England Regional Assembly says expansion at Heathrow must be independently tested for any impact on climate change now and not after the runway is built. Assembly members have called on Government to put its case for Heathrow's third runway to the Committee on Climate Change* this year. Government doesn't plan to seek views until 2020 but the Assembly believes it should show leadership on climate change now. (SEERA)
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Johnson airport plans could threaten legal challenge to Heathrow runway
A spokesman for the 2M group has claimed Boris Johnson's plans to build a new airport in the Thames estuary could weaken a legal challenge against expansion of Heathrow he is helping to fund with £15,000. A legal challenge based on the detrimental environmental impact could be undermined by moves to increase flight capacity elsewhere in the south-east. Boris believes there is an economic case for increasing capacity in the London area. (Guardian)
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Manston Night Flights
A local Thanet councillor has warned that: A "Major European Airline" (reported to be BA World Cargo) has requested to be allowed 11 flights of 747's a week. The airline have asked to be able to operate between 11pm and 11.30pm and 6am and 7am meaning the current section 106 agreement governing flight times would need to be changed. The flights will be freight and cargo journeys, not passenger trips, and could start as early as May. (local blog site)
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Gatwick disposal gives legal advisers wings
A raft of law firms picking up instructions on the sale of Gatwick, which BAA hopes to sell for £2bn. Five bidders are in the running to pick up the airport from BAA. But with no clear frontrunner as yet, the prospect of a sale is providing a feeding frenzy for the lawyers involved. The article lists the 5 bidders and the law firms representing them. (The Lawyer)
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Manston – more visits for airport working party
The Manston Airport Working Party - part of Thanet District Council - have carried out two more visits to other airports, looking at the draft masterplan for Kent International Airport at Manston. Members have visited Prestwick, (which is also owned by Infratil), Southend, Norwich, Bristol and Bournemouth - and spoken to local planners. Research is also underway regarding Doncaster Robin Hood Airport. (Thanet DC)
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Boris Island is a fantasy, says Labour
Boris Johnson's proposal to build an airport in the Thames Estuary is a fantasy, according to London Assembly Labour environmental spokesman Murad Qureshi. Speaking ahead of a meeting of the Assembly's environment committee, he said "Boris's fantasy island will remain just that. Boris's opposition to a third runway at Heathrow is based on political expediency - why else would he propose building a whole new airport where no one can vote him out?" (NCE)