Airport News
Below are news items relating to specific airports
MPs warn against Heathrow Airport expansion: ‘Put the planet first’
Fleur Anderson, the Labour MP for Putney, led a parliamentary debate on 24th May, in which she said plans to expand Heathrow would subject Londoners to unacceptable levels of noise and air pollution. That would be “a serious health issue” for her constituents. She called for the Government to block the project. Fleur said to the incoming Heathrow CEO: “There is no version of an expanded Heathrow which is compatible with climate targets. There is no version of an expanded Heathrow that does not reduce the quality of the lives of 650,000 people in my constituency and beyond, who live under the flight path. And there is no version of an expanded Heathrow that does not make the air our children breathe even more polluted. I implore you, put the quality of life and the planet first, and the profits of your shareholders second.” A coalition of MPs came together for the debate, to protest against any expansion of Heathrow. They included former Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, MP for Hayes and Harlington; Munira Wilson; Fleur Anderson; Ruth Cadbury; Andy Slaughter; Rupa Huq and John Randall.
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French ban on some domestic flights comes into effect, if short rail alternative exists
France has banned domestic short-haul flights where train alternatives taking under two and a half hours exist, in a bid to cut carbon emissions. Connecting flights are unaffected. Services, linking Paris Orly airport with Nantes, Bordeaux and Lyons, had already been stopped by Air France under a 2020 agreement. However, they are allowed to continue to use Charles de Gaulle airport. Unfortunately, this will only have a small effect on overall French aviation CO2 emissions, the bulk of which come from international flights. The French government had faced calls to introduce even stricter rules, with the 2019 Citizens' Convention on Climate asking for bans when the train alternative would be under 4 hours. But this was reduced to two-and-a-half hours after objections from some regions, as well as the airline Air France-KLM. A consumer group has called for "safeguards that [French national railway] SNCF will not seize the opportunity to artificially inflate its prices or degrade the quality of rail service". It is hoped the short flight ban, though having little impact, could set a precedent to be followed by other countries.
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Appeal Court rejects application by BAAN to appeal against Bristol Airport expansion decision
In January the High Court ruled that the airport's major expansion plans could go ahead following a lengthy legal battle, but local group Bristol Airport Action Network appealed against the decision. Now that appeal has been "refused on all grounds". by the Court of Appeal. A ruling found that there was not "real prospect of success" of the challenge and no other compelling reason for to allow it. The airport plans to expand its maximum capacity from 10m to 12m passengers a year, had initially been refused planning permission by North Somerset Council in January 2020. The airport's owner Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan later appealed to the Government, and the decision was overturned by the Planning Inspectorate in February 2022. BAAN has been fighting ever since, and commented that “The airport can now expand by an extra 2 million passengers a year, build a multi-storey car park on Greenbelt land, massively increase the number of summer night flights and congest the local roads with an extra 10,000 cars a day." As well as hugely increase its carbon emissions. BAAN says "the planning system concerning airport expansion has been rigged by the government to ignore the climate crisis."
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Liverpool Airport post-pandemic recovery helped by delaying repayment of £30 million council loan
Liverpool John Lennon Airport has increased turnover and reduced losses in the year to March 31, 2022, its latest accounts at Companies House reveal. Turnover in the year to March 31, 2022, rose to £15.126m, compared with £8.012m the previous year. A pre-tax loss of £4.874m was an improvement on the pre-tax loss of £12.060m a year ago, again, linked to the increase in passenger numbers as part of the ongoing recovery from the Coronavirus pandemic. The company has net assets of £5m, compared with £9.9m the previous year. In the the summer of 2020 the airport group was offered a £34m loan from the combined authority to help it through the pandemic. It said £30m was due to have been repaid on March 31 this year, but that deadline has now been extended for a further year. That is money from taxpayers, and the delay means the council is not getting its loan back soon. The figures reveal LJLA’s biggest source of revenue in the latest financial year was its car parking operation, which generated £5.251m. Aeronautical earned £4.489m, while concessions, or retail, provided £4.028m in turnover.
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Heathrow vs airlines – dispute continues as parties given permission to appeal price cap
Heathrow Airport and separately 3 major airlines (Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and Delta Air Lines) have been granted permission to appeal the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)’s decision on the Heathrow price cap. The airlines have been locked in a fierce dispute with Heathrow over the amount the airport can charge per passenger. Both sides launched rival appeals in April against the CAA’s decision to lower the cap; the appeal process was then passed to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). The appeals followed the CAA’s confirmation in March that the levy would remain fixed at the same rate as set out earlier in the year - not allowing Heathrow to charge a higher rate. The CAA had announced in January that the 2023 cap would be raised to £31.57 per passenger, up from £30.19. It will then fall about 20% to £25.43 per passenger in 2024 and will remain there until 2026. The airlines argue that Heathrow has played down its recovery from Covid, and used “knowingly undercooked and self-serving passenger forecasts,” to attempt to keep the cap, which is set based on passenger numbers, higher. Heathrow argue that the rate should be greater, to boost investment in the airport.
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Doncaster Council considers leasing closed Doncaster Sheffield Airport at considerable expense from Peel
Doncaster Council could lease Doncaster Sheffield Airport (DSA), which closed recently, from its owners, Peel L&P, under plans being considered. The airport was wound down by Peel in November 2022, citing the financial viability of the site. At a meeting later this month, the council is set to discuss ring-fencing more than £3m for a compulsory purchase order to buy the airport. The council said Peel had recently offered a lease of the airport. The council hopes to reopen the site, and provide jobs. The order to potentially buy DSA from Peel is expected to initially cost up to £3.1m in legal costs. A report looking at what can be done to reopen the airport is set to be discussed at a cabinet meeting on 12 April. The plan is for the area around the airport to contain a cluster of businesses to compliment the site. The Mayor of Doncaster said, rather over-optimistically, that the airport "has the potential to be the jewel in the crown of the Doncaster and South Yorkshire economy." In fact, it will generally just provide holiday flights, taking local residents to spend their money abroad.
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Claims that Air Alderney flights from Lydd to Le Touquet might start in summer
Commercial flights from Lydd airport, by Air Alderney, may start this summer. The small specialist airline will fly from the airfield on Romney Marsh to destinations including the French airport of Le Touquet, which is a 15 minute flight from Lydd. The runway at Lydd is one of the shortest on mainland UK at 1,505m - more than 2,000m less than the two runways at Heathrow. A 300m expansion of the runway was approved 10 years ago, along with a new terminal building, but work has yet to begin on either. The airport also likes to call itself London Ashford Airport, though it is miles - and a hard journey - from London. It is controlled by Saudi businessman Sheikh Fahad Al-Athel. In 2013 the airport was given the permission to extend the airport and runway, to take larger holiday destination aircraft. The plans faced legal challenges with campaigners opposed to the expansion at a site which is close to the Dungeness nuclear plant, an RSPB nature reserve and a military range. The Lydd Airport Action Group took the expansions plans to the high court, but their bid to block them was thrown out. It is unclear whether commercial flights will actually return, or be profitable.
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Scottish LibDems say support for Heathrow 3rd runway must be withdrawn by next First Minister
The LibDems in Scotland say the next first minister has been urged to finally end Scottish Government support for the expansion of Heathrow, if they’re serious about the climate emergency. They say the SNP’s support of third runway at Heathrow was “simply not compatible” with emissions-cutting targets. Party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said the climate had been “shamefully neglected” during the leadership contest by Humza Yousaf, Kate Forbes and Ash Regan. And he told whoever succeeds Nicola Sturgeon to “rip up” a deal between Heathrow Airport and Scottish ministers. A Scottish Government memorandum of understanding with Heathrow backing the proposed expansion includes a pledge of up to 16,000 new jobs in Scotland and 75,000 additional flights between Scottish airports and London. The Scottish LibDems said this would generate nearly 600,000 tons of extra emissions by 2040 and hammer the country’s net zero ambitions. A report by the Climate Change Committee said Scotland was falling behind the rest of the UK in decarbonising transport and had been “unwilling to consider measures” like restricting aviation growth.
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Dutch to introduce limits on the carbon emissions of international flights from its airports
The Dutch cabinet has announced that flights from Dutch airports will have their CO2 emissions capped from 2025 depending on the airport. It has not yet specified the different thresholds for each. This follows the “Aviation Memorandum 2020-2050”, a 2020 memorandum which laid down the blueprint for measures to achieve increased "sustainability" in the Dutch aviation sector. The Minister responsible for aviation said there is not yet any "global, European or national instrument that legally anchors aviation CO2 emissions in absolute terms. The CO2 cap provides this anchorage ... and secures the climate goals for aviation by setting clear and enforceable limits on permitted CO2 emissions, thus creating a guarantee for meeting the climate targets ... The targets are currently unenforceable; without introducing a legal cap, there is a risk that CO2 emissions from aviation will in practice turn out higher than agreed, as a result of which the goals of the Aviation Memorandum will not be met.” The cap is planned to be implemented in 2025.
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UK’s biggest airports between them hope for 60% increase in passengers, compared to 2019 level
The UK’s 8 biggest airports have plans to fly almost 150 million more passengers per year, in a bet that climate targets will not hold back the industry. A Financial Times analysis of their expansion projects found that combined they would be able to handle 387 mn passengers annually, a more than 60% increase on the 240mn travellers who used the airports in 2019. If Heathrow ever managed to build a 3rd runway, it would like to increase the annual passenger number from 81 million in 2019, to 142 million. If Gatwick is allowed (DCO likely in a few months) to convert is emergency runway into near full use, it could get more than 30 million more passengers per year. Manchester plans expansion of one of its terminals to handle an extra 15mn passengers annually. Edinburgh completed the work to raise its capacity to 20mn passengers in 2019. Airport executives and investors said airports were looking to push through growth plans because many in the industry believed that it would only get more difficult in the future as environmental pressures grew. The UK has no proper aviation policy, other than wildly optimistic hopes for novel low carbon fuels, and approval of “making best use” of existing infrastructure.