General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Heathrow fares badly in party manifestos – small, limited reference in Tory manifesto
By inserting only a small and limited reference to Heathrow expansion in the Conservative Manifesto (published on 18th May) is interpreted as meaning the Tories are leaving themselves room to drop the proposed runway, if necessary. The manifesto only says: "...We will continue our programme of strategic national investments, including High Speed 2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and the expansion of Heathrow Airport – and we will ensure that these great projects do as much as possible to develop the skills and careers of British workers." The No 3rd Runway Coalition, set up earlier this year, includes over a dozen campaign groups, parliamentary candidates, local authorities and NGOs, working together to oppose Heathrow expansion. The Coalition believes the weak reference could indicate recognition of the insurmountable challenges that expansion at Heathrow faces including poor air quality, climate change, noise reduction, surface access difficulties and costs to the public, and the demolition of thousands of homes. The Labour manifesto only said the party “recognised the need for additional capacity in the south east” and it would “guarantee that any airport expansion “adheres” to Labour's four tests. The LibDems made an explicit commitment not to support a 3rd Heathrow runway, or one at Gatwick or Stansted.
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The Institute of Directors want government to allow two new runways – not just Heathrow
The Institute of Directors (IOD) are firmly convinced that people should fly more, and so the south east needs more runway capacity. They appear to be entirely convinced by the publicity Heathrow has put out about the alleged benefits a 3rd runway would bring. But they want more than just one runway. The IODs wants the government, after the 8th June election, to build two more runways, and a follow-up Airports Commission be established. They want a fast-track commission be set up immediately to recommend locations for two additional runways within a year. Plans for a 3rd Heathrow runway need the draft National Policy Statement to be voted through parliament, perhaps early in 2018 and then several years of planning process. At the earliest the runway might be in use some time after 2025. Numbers of air passengers are rising quickly, as flying is so cheap and the moderately affluent in the UK get richer. The London Chamber of Commerce and Industry has also called for the next government to enable a 2nd runway at Gatwick to help create a “megacity”. While Gatwick was shortlisted as a candidate for a new runway by the Airports Commission, other airports such as Stansted and Birmingham would be likely to push hard should a future opportunity emerge.
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Sir Jeremy Sullivan, given task of overseeing NPS consultation, rejected ban on Heathrow night flights in 2008
The DfT has set up a retired High Court judge to oversee the process of the consultation into the draft Airports National Policy Statement. His brief is to look at the process, and he is not interested in the content of the consultation. Sir Jeremy is reputed to have been a good and popular judge. However it is interesting that he presided over an appeal for a reduction in the number of night flights at Heathrow, in 2008. Richmond, Wandsworth and Windsor and Maidenhead councils had taken the DfT to a judicial review at the Royal Courts of Justice, to seek a reduction in the number of aircraft allowed to arrive at Heathrow before 6am. But Sir Jeremy Sullivan ruled in favour of the Government, rejecting the review on all grounds. Mr Sullivan said that while the Government had a policy of bearing down on night noise this did not necessarily mean that it had to make things better. He added that the policy was, therefore, "vacuous." The councils argued half the planes in this early morning period had been placed in the wrong noise category and if they had been correctly classified they would not have been able to fly. The judge agreed with the DfT that the government did not have to take specific action on the Heathrow problem, as the night flights scheme pooled noise data over the 3 London airports, Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted.
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EasyJet annual overall CO2 emissions rise, but the spin just focuses on CO2 per passenger kilometre
EasyJet has had a moderately difficult year and its profits have not grown as fast as it would have liked. So logically it is pushing for the highest load factors it can, to save costs and increase profits. Getting the planes fuller is great - as it does make a small reduction in the amount of carbon emitted per passenger. EasyJet is proud to be announcing that its CO2 emissions for the year ending September 2016 were 79.98g/passenger km. That was down by 1.3% on the previous year and 31% lower than in 2000. But in 2000 the number of passenger kilometres flown by EasyJet was only about 2.5% of the number now. With the massive annual growth in passenger kilometres that EasyJet anticipates (and does everything it can to achieve) of over 6% per year, the small improvement on each is far, far out-weighted. It is like someone one a diet saying they will eat biscuits that are 1% smaller, but eat 6% more of them. The net effect is massively more - biscuit eaten in this case - carbon emissions overall. It is merely greenwash, for PR purposes and to confuse the unwary, to crow about tiny improvements in carbon intensity per unit of a product, while increasing the quantity of the product. All industries do this - even countries. EasyJet's overall carbon emissions are rising, and as long as it grows fast, will continue to rise. Most gains in load factor improvements have already been achieved - the "low hanging fruit".
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Campaigners incredulous at Rob Gray’s appointment as the new head of community engagement at Heathrow
Heathrow airport has effectively stuck two fingers up at the local opposition to the 3rd runway, by appointing to the post of Director of Community and Stakeholder Relations at the airport. Mr Gray starts in May, working under executive director for expansion, Emma Gilthorpe. The job will be to "work with local communities to ensure our plans reflect their views.” Rob Gray has been deeply disliked by opponents of Heathrow expansion, due to his 4 years as director of the astro-turf organisation, "Back Heathrow" which was set up to look like a genuine community group. Mr Gray is unpopular not only because of his personal style and hostile attitude to those whose lives would be damaged by the runway, but also because of untruthful campaigns. One was banned by the ASA in October 2016, for having incorrectly used statistics claiming the extent of support for a 3rd runway. Back Heathrow also produced promotional materials and letters implying *(falsely) that Heathrow would close without the runway, and jobs would be lost. Mr Gray's attitudes towards runway opponents makes him a highly unsuitable person to have the role of liaison - if the airport was serious in undertaking genuine dialogue. His appointment is being seen as a signal that they are not. Back Heathrow has a new director, Parmjit Dhanda, and its recent letter to its supporters, asking them to send in NPS submissions in favour of the runway says: “It is now up to you to save Heathrow’s future.” and “PS. Don’t risk Heathrow’s future.”
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Guide to impact of Election on work of parliamentary committees, especially relating to Heathrow NPS
For those of us who are unfamiliar with the way parliament works etc, and especially in relation to select committees and the effect of a general election, here is a short briefing on what will happen in the coming months, especially in relation to Heathrow. From the 3rd May Parliament is dissolved. The parliamentary select committees have also ceased to function. The chairs of these committees need to be elected first, and the decision made on which party will chair each committee, according to the strength of the party in the House. It could be mid July before committee chairs are appointed. Then members of the committees have to be appointed, and that needs a motion setting out the membership of each committee, agreed on the floor of the House. In both 2010 and 2015, this took approximately six weeks to be agreed. Therefore, the earliest the final composition of select committees will be known is likely to be September 2017. The election means that any current inquiries not completed (such as the Transport Committee one on the draft NPS) have been paused. It will be up to the members of the new Transport Select Committee if they wish to pick up this inquiry and continue with it. There is also an inquiry by 4 select committees into air quality. That will also have to be picked up by the new committees.
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Airline lobby group “Airlines UK” set out their list of manifesto demands, to boost the sector’s profits
Airlines UK, the lobby group for UK-registered airlines, has set out a number of manifesto ‘asks’ ahead of the General Election in June. It has Brexit, taxation and airport capacity at the top of its wish list, for maximising the industry's growth and profits. The sector is very nervous about Brexit, and wants the UK to remain a member of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) with all EASA rules and regulations applied to UK operators and companies based here and the UK continuing to receive full voting rights within EASA. It wants the government to safeguard EU, US and international market access for airlines. It wants continued UK involvement in the development of Single European Sky (SES), and participation in SESAR. It wants to continue to be able to employ staff from across Europe, and no further restrictions to UK border arrangements. Airlines UK also wants the 3rd Heathrow runway, with lower costs of fares there; and also growth in aviation at all other UK airports, with airspace modernisation, and surface access improvements (paid for by the taxpayer). While wanting all these goodies, it wants there to be no tax at all on air travel, with APD abolished. (Air travel already pays no VAT or fuel duty). And if APD is cut in Scotland, it definitely wants no APD in the UK, in order to avoid "competitive distortions." On carbon emissions, it just wants more use of biofuels (with no acknowledgement of their environmental cost). It is a grasping industry, never satisfied ....
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Large number of delays on Piccadilly line in the last 10 months – even with just a 2 runway Heathrow
Passengers on the Piccadilly line suffered 47,800 hours of delays during the last 10 months, official statistics reveal. Problems with the 40 year old trains accounted for a third of all rush hour delays while 7% were because of faulty signals on the ageing line. The line, fourth busiest on the network and used by more than 70,000 passengers a day, has been beset with problems. Lost passenger hours are calculated by measuring the delay caused to each train and then multiplying by the number of people affected. The information was obtained by a FoI request to TfL. The figures highlight the need for urgent upgrade work on the line. The director of the Piccadilly line said this was caused by "a large number of damaged train wheels during November and December last year" (due to rain, apparently - rain happens every year?). In autumn 2016 leaves-on-the line resulted in half the Piccadilly line fleet being taken out of service for repairs. This is the main tube line to Heathrow, and Heathrow pledges (if anyone could believe them ...) that 55% of its passengers will use public transport by 2031 - up from about 42% now. That is a massively higher number of people, expected to use a line that already struggles. The 3rd runway can only make this worse, and Heathrow refuses to pay for transport infrastructure improvement.
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LibDem Leader Tim Farron says voting Tory “sends relaxed message over 3rd Heathrow runway”
Liberal Democrat leader Tim Farron called on Londoners not to give the Tories a free pass to build a 3rd Heathrow runway. Mr Farron claimed that a vote for the Conservatives in the general election would send a “relaxed message” about the most significant construction project in the capital since the Second World War. “If the Conservatives win in south-west London that would be taken as a message from local people they were happy and content with where we were with Heathrow,” he said. Reaffirming his party’s position as anti-Heathrow expansion, Mr Farron said his MPs would block every vote on the issue in the Commons. Pressed on how he would solve the shortage of runway capacity for the anticipated rise in air passengers, he said was about providing alternatives and making use of the other runway capacity around the country, especially in places like the Midlands. Meanwhile it is expected that the Conservative manifesto will again (as in 2015) avoid any mention of the runway issue, in order not to cause problems for local MPs like Philip Hammond, Boris Johnson and Justine Greening (not to mention Theresa May herself, in Maidenhead) getting re-elected, despite their difficult positions of not standing up for their constituents on this matter.
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Tory manifesto to avoid mention of Heathrow 3rd runway to help critics (like Boris and Hammond) get re-elected
The Telegraph has learned that the Conservative election manifesto will avoid mentioning the Heathrow proposed 3rd runway, in order to save the party political problems. A Conservative spokesman told the Telegraph there is “no need” to cite the project despite it not yet being voted through "because it was announced last year.""A more veiled reference to airport expansion is now expected to be included instead." Leaving it out of the manifesto means MPs such as Boris Johnson, Philip Hammond, Justine Greening and even the PM herself (with a constituency badly affected by Heathrow) are saved awkwardness. They hope to be able to avoid the issue, even though it one of the most expensive and controversial infrastructure projects proposed in then next few years. The issue was also not mentioned in the 2015 election when, again, it risked losing voters in seats affected by the airport - especially marginals. A decision as large as Heathrow would be expected to be in an election manifesto, as it has implications for so many people. That is especially the case as the draft NPS on Heathrow must be voted for in Parliament. Tania Mathias continues to battle against the runway plans, as does Zac Goldsmith, now to be the Conservative candidate at Richmond Park. Both are contesting seats with others, equally opposed to the runway - Vince Cable and Sarah Olney.