Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
Heathrow sees record passenger levels
The number of passengers using London Heathrow last month rose by 6.5% to 6.4m, a record for the airport in the month of August. British Airways, the airport’s biggest operator, avoided the large-scale flight cancellations it has suffered in each of the previous four summers. The airport’s performance in August has been the best for five years. (Financial Times)
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Birmingham International Airport: A ‘greenwash’ on climate change?
Birmingham International Airport (BIA) is attempting to expand its existing runway and increase flights from its terminals. The ‘master plan’ in which these attempts are outlined is due for publication any time this year. The draft master plan – released in 2005 – makes a corporate case for airport expansion, but ignores its climate change impacts. (Indymedia)
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Nottingham East Midlands – AIRPORT PLANS WIND FARM TO CUT CARBON EMISSIONS
East Midlands Airport is aiming to become the first in the country to install 4 wind turbines at its Castle Donington site. Its proposal, which has been submitted to North West Leicestershire District Council, is part of the airport's pledge to make its ground operations carbon-neutral by 2012. (Derby Telegraph)
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Manchester’s £650m Airport City master plan unveiled
Manchester Airports Group has produced its plans for an 150 acre Airport City , close to Manchester Airport. In April 2011 Government announced that Manchester Airport would be one of the first four Enterprise Zones, with Airport City at the core of the zone. The Airport City (also elsewhere called an Aerotropolis) would be in two zones, one with hotel, office, retail and advanced manufacturing space, and the other focusingn on freight and logistics. MAG will submit a planning application within weeks for the scheme's main link road, with work set to start by spring and due for completion in 12-15 months. The rest of the building will take several years. MAG hopes to attract global businesses to work in their airport city, and create a project to compete with other locations in Barcelona, Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Paris, Dusseldorf and Heathrow.
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City Airport aims to be 2012’s terminal
City Airport has submitted ambitious expansion plans as it aims to become the main London terminal for the 2012 Olympics. Richard Gooding, chief executive of City Airport, is capitalising on 'creaking' Heathrow and said 'We are planning to expand by 50% in the next few years and we believe we can do that without adding stress or strain to our level of service'. (Evening Standard 9.8.2007)
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London City Airport wants more flights
BOSSES have made an application for a big increase in flight movements at London City Airport in Silvertown. They have requested a rise from 80,000 to 120,000 a year. It is based on a forecast that the terminal will continue to grow and handle 3.9 million passengers a year by 2010. (8.8.2007 Newham Recorder)
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Joy for protesters as Heathrow is denied ‘mother of all injunctions’
Environmental campaigners seeking to stage a protest at Heathrow airport this summer claimed a huge and symbolic victory yesterday after a High Court judge massively scaled back the terms of an injunction sought against them. The British Airports Authority (BAA), which runs the airport, was ordered to pay the costs of three groups who had challenged what was described as the most wide-ranging limit on the right to protest Britain has ever witnessed. (Independent 7.8.2007)
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Extensive coverage of the BAA injunction story
Press interest in the BAA injunction got going on 27th July, and was extensive during the duration of the High Court hearing, which started on 1st August and ended on 6th.
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How Heathrow’s lawyer has made a career of opposing right to protest
To his many enemies, Timothy Lawson-Cruttenden (TLC) is the establishment solicitor who gags their protests. To his clients, he is legal barbed wire - an expert who can hold back a rabble. For the past week, the double-barrelled former Army officer has been seeking to prevent anti-aviation campaigners from holding a "climate camp" at Heathrow. (Independent 4.8.2007)
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BAA: Airport protests create an Iraqi-style terror threat
The airport operator BAA raised the spectre of Iraqi-style terrorism at Heathrow yesterday as it sought to impose wide restrictions on the right of protestors to mount a climate change demonstration later this month. Article from the Independent.