General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
CAA new 2-week consultation about keeping Heathrow charge at £31.57
The CAA sets the maximum level of passenger charges that Heathrow can charge, generally for a 5 year period. Heathrow had few passenger for two years, due to Covid and the CAA allowed them to raise their passenger charges, while passenger numbers remained low. However, the numbers are now rising, and may be high next year. Back in June, the CAA said the cap would fall from £30.19 then to £26.31 in 2026. When the effects of inflation are removed, that is a 6% reduction every year. Now the CAA has published an interim cap consultation (8th December - for 2 weeks), which raises the cap from £30.19 this year to £31.57. By contrast, the charge was £19.36 pre-pandemic. Airlines believe the higher level of cap is unjustifiable, as based on 2023 traffic forecasts that are too low. Heathrow wants the high charges, in order to recoup its vast debts, pay its shareholders their dividends, and also perhaps for future expansion.
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Frequent flier schemes, like Air Miles, seem to encourage flying, and thus aviation CO2 emissions
Ashley Nunes, a research fellow at Harvard Law School, has looked at the impact of air miles on increasing air travel, and thus aviation carbon emissions. It is possible that trips taken using air miles account for around 10% of overall bookings. Might abolishing these schemes have a significant impact on CO2 emissions? Aviation loyalty programmes are around 40 years old. They have evolved a bit since then, so it is not merely a complementary trip that can be obtained. Today, banking air miles also no longer requires getting in the air. In fact, it is estimated that over half of them are earned through non-flying related activities, as airlines have formed lucrative partnerships with third parties such as credit card companies, car rental agencies and hotel chains. It can sometimes be hard for someone to use the air miles for the flight they want, and many are never claimed. This is called "breakage" in industry parlance, and that might be as much as 30%. Sometimes people use them to upgrade from coach class to a premium seat, and that may not have much carbon impact, if those seats would otherwise have been empty.
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Airlines want £billions taxpayer handouts to cover cost of developing “sustainable” jet fuel
Virgin Atlantic, BA and EasyJet have been criticised for making ‘outrageous’ requests for taxpayers to subsidise the attempts to use more lower carbon fuels, and indirectly, subsidise air passengers. Airlines are lobbying the government for £ billions in handouts to help them cover the cost of developing new fuels, called "sustainable aviation fuel" (SAF). Freedom of Information requests by OpenDemocracy found Virgin Atlantic, British Airways and easyJet are among the companies demanding public money to help them meet a requirement to use SAF in future. In any year, about 50% of the UK population do not fly, and the richest fly much more than poorer people. So subsidy for SAF from taxpayer money in inequitable. The airlines claim they pay money to the government, through the ETS and CORSIA. But that small amount of money helps to fund public services. The airlines are trying to claim that boosting SAF production would increase jobs etc ... There are not enough genuine sources of waste, that are not doing environmental harm, to produce much SAF - certainly not on the scale they want. The sector also wants "contracts for difference" to pay SAF producers agreed prices, even if the market price fell. Money for that has to be found from somewhere (taxing fossil jet fuel perhaps?)
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KLM encourages passengers to take the train for some short flights, to slightly reduce aviation CO2
KLM’s chief executive, Marjan Rintel, has encouraged passengers to take the train rather than fly on some short-haul journeys to help cut carbon emissions, saying the airline sector should stop viewing rail as a competitor. National governments in Europe have been taking action to get people on to high-speed trains instead of short-haul flights, to reduce aviation CO2 emissions. Air France, which comes under the same holding company as KLM, stopped flying domestic routes where there are rail or coach alternatives taking under two and a half hours in 2020, as part of measures it agreed to with the French government in exchange for aid during the Covid-19 pandemic. This was changed last week, when the EU only approved this for 3 routes, Paris-Orly and Bordeaux, Nantes and Lyon - and their connecting flights exempted. In June, the Dutch government announced plans to cut flights from Schiphol by over 10% to 440,000 a year. The move is likely to lead to a sharp reduction in short-haul flights from Schiphol, meaning the KLM boss can advocate rail trips. Rintel said KLM had already block-booked seats on the train service linking Amsterdam to Brussels and Paris .
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EU agrees to “watershed” inclusion into the carbon market for shipping; eyes now on aviation
EU negotiators have agreed to bring shipping into the EU's carbon market, the ETS, showing that pricing international emissions is possible. Shipping, (as well as aviation) is one of Europe's largest CO2 emitters, but so far it has not been fully included in the Emissions Trading System. It means that shipping polluters will have to pay and shows that the EU can regulate emissions beyond its borders. There had been claims in the past that shipping and aviation could not be included, as much of their emissions take place outside the EU's borders. T&E wants the same equally ambitious scheme for aviation, so it is fully in the ETS. Currently only flights within Europe are included, not those outside it, which make up about 60% of total European aviation CO2 emissions. EU negotiators will be discussing aviation emissions next week, and there is no reason for aviation to not be treated in the same manner as shipping.
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Reduction in flying only way to achieve net zero, warns sustainability expert
The only way the aviation sector will reach net zero by 2050 is if there is a reduction in the number of people flying. Cait Hewitt, policy director at Aviation Environment Federation, warned Travel Weekly’s Sustainability Summit that the aviation sector does “not yet have the technologies” required to achieve the target. The industry wants a lot more government financial assistance to produce more SAF, and also perhaps "green" hydrogen. But realistically, there is not going to be a lot of these fuels for many years to come, if ever. There will certainly not be enough for the sector not only to continue at its present size, but also to expand. The industry is desperate to make out that the problem is the need to decarbonise flights, not reduce their number. The sector has to keep growing - that is the universal business model. Cait said “I’ve heard all kinds of promises from the aviation sector about cutting emissions, and while it’s true that emissions are reducing on a per-passenger basis, overall emissions are not.” Every sector, including aviation, must cut its climate impact.
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Airbus boss warns of delay in decarbonising airline industry – “green” hydrogen and SAF not available in large amounts
Head of Airbus, Guillaume Faury, says there is a shortage of allegedly low carbon fuels, so-called "Sustainable Aviation Fuel" (SAF). He said this is slowing the uptake of SAF. He said he had concerns about the pace of investment in facilities to produce “green” hydrogen and SAF. "Green" hydrogen, produced from water using zero-carbon electricity, offers one possible solution, while SAF, made from plant or other wastes or using carbon from the air, can be used in existing gas turbine engines. The hope is that, although SAF burns to create CO2, there is less overall CO2 in the fuel lifecycle than using conventional jet kerosene. Airbus wants to fly zero-emissions hydrogen aircraft in commercial service by 2035 but Faury said this may be later, due to the lack of "green" hydrogen. With every other sector aiming to use genuinely low carbon, renewably generated electricity, is there enough to use on producing jet fuel, largely for discretionary leisure trips? Rolls Royce and EasyJet are also making efforts to test engines fuelled by hydrogen. So far it has been burned in a jet engine, on the ground, not on a plane in flight. SAF supplies are likely to remain relatively limited for years.
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British Airways to double operations at Gatwick Airport
British Airways is planning to double its operations at Gatwick, instead of more at Heathrow. It is keen to compete against Heathrow. BA is understood to be planning to increase the number of aircraft based at Gatwick from 14 to between 24 and 28 in the next few years. Airlines are annoyed at the high level of landing charges, per passenger, at Heathrow as well as the problems of not having enough staff this summer. BA wants to grow (like all airlines - they have no Plan B) and intends that to be at Gatwick, for the time being. BA was among a number of airlines to decrease its presence at Gatwick, Britain’s second-busiest airport, during the pandemic. Arch-rival Virgin Atlantic moved its operations to Heathrow. BA returned to Gatwick last year with the launch of Euroflyer, a cut-price short-haul subsidiary that would operate independently in a similar vein to Cityflyer, which runs BA flights from London City Airport.
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Virgin Atlantic withdraws support for Heathrow 3rd runway, due to its high landing costs
The CEO of Virgin Atlantic, Shai Weiss, has said he does not support the expansion of Heathrow if it continues with its very high landing charges for passengers. Heathrow will be allowed, by the regulator, the CAA, to raise charges by 56% next year, to £30.19 a passenger, but will have to reduce them to 26.31 in 2026. Heathrow claims this will not provide them enough money to invest in a 3rd runway. But the airlines using Heathrow consider the charges too high, and a disincentive to passengers. Weiss said Heathrow’s plan to raise charges was “great for the airport and its mostly foreign shareholders” - including Qatar and China’s sovereign wealth fund – but “a bad deal for consumers, airlines, and the UK economy”. He wants the CAA to reform a “broken” system and “pay closer attention to the abuse of power by a de facto monopolistic airport”. ..."Until that happens, it is difficult to see how expansion at Heathrow can be supported.” He ruled out a return to Gatwick, which Virgin left during Covid, saying there was “no connectivity”. Virgin Atlantic had become more efficient since focusing all its operations on one London airport.
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Luton councillors in disagreement on whether £500m loans to Luton airport airport company are “secured” or not
Disagreement between opposing political parties has resumed over whether loans by Luton Borough Council to its airport company, Lution Rising, are secured or unsecured. The latest exchange came during debate on the local authority’s treasury management annual report at a full council meeting on 15th November. The opposition group leader said: “... there’s more than £500m of unsecured loans, which have been given to the airport company. I know I’m about to be told those loans are in fact secured on the assets of the company. But that’s nonsense. You can’t take as security for a loan like this assets which the council already owns. They’re effectively unsecured.” It is unclear whether the loans are secured, as they are to a separate entity, London Luton Airport Limited, trading as Luton Rising, and the council may legally be separate from that. Councillors approved the annual report on treasury management and prudential indicators for the year ending March 31st 2022.