General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
DfT report says widening the M25 on its south-west quadrant would not be the right solution
The M25 South West Quadrant Strategic Study (M25SWQ), has been published by the Department for Transport (DfT) and Highways England. It claims to "identify and appraise options for improving performance of the transport network across all modes in and around the M25 South West Quadrant". It has concluded that the M25 should not be widened (beyond what is already committed) in the SW quadrant, because that would have "significant (negative) effects on surrounding communities" and would not be effective in reducing congestion". The study was looking at the section of the M25 between, and including, junction 10 for the A3 at Wisley and junction 16 for the M40 in Buckinghamshire. This is the busiest section of the M25, close to Heathrow. The report says future work on the M25 should not focus on widening it, but reduce the pressures and recommends further work to "Explore options for new or enhanced highway capacity, separate but parallel to the M25." "This should work first to find alternatives to travel, or to move traffic to more sustainable modes. ... But the volume of travel means that road enhancements are also likely to be needed." There could be upgrades for existing roads, and options for roads to fill in the gaps.
Click here to view full story...
About 30 people at Notre-Dame-des-Landes demand their property back (taken 5 years ago to build a new airport)
At Notre-Dame-des-Landes, a new airport is planned to replace the existing Nantes airport. The battle has been going on for years. Now exactly five years after the French state expropriated a large area of land for the airport, there has been no start to the project - there is not even a start date in prospect. Therefore under the French system, as work has not begun, those who have lost ownership of their land (they may still live on it for the time being) can apply to get it back. Around 30 people affected are now submitting the necessary legal papers to get their land, farmland and buildings back, to the court in Saint-Nazaire. These people have not used the money, and they don't want it. They want ownership of their land and property back. The French system did not anticipate, in the law relating to expropriation, that any scheme would have delays for as long as five years.
Click here to view full story...
The challenge of tackling the non-CO2 impacts of aviation – explained by Carbon Brief
In a long, but very informative article, Carbon Brief discusses the problems of the non-CO2 impacts of aircraft emissions. These are from water vapour, aerosols and nitrogen oxides emitted by aircraft at cruise altitudes. Though these impacts may be short lived, they have definite climate forcing effects, though these are complicated, while CO2 has easily understood impacts and lasts in the atmosphere for decades or centuries. The impact of contrails forming cirrus cloud is to slow the radiation of heat back into space, causing more warming. But this effect is greatest at night, when contrails persist, and also in areas where there is colder, damper air. So the impacts are not uniform across the globe. The article discusses possibilities of planes avoiding certain areas where contrails persist, either on a daily basis or with blocks of airspace out of use for particular periods. Or of planes flying less high. Both those options are likely to increase fuel use - and thus CO2 emissions - by planes, and so need to be carefully organised, to avoid having yet more overall climate impact. Even if the ICAO deal requires planes to pay a small amount to "offset" their CO2, they are not required to pay for non-CO2 impacts. With the global aviation industry expected to increase its CO2 emissions by 200%-360% by 2050, the non-CO2 impacts are a very real problem, and one that should not be ignored. Small changes to flight routes are unlikely to make more than a token difference.
Click here to view full story...
DfT invests a further £1.8 million of taxpayer money over 2 years in the Dundee-Stansted route
A new deal to secure the air link between Dundee City Airport and Stansted for another two years has been announced. The UK and Scottish governments and Dundee City Council have agreed a public service obligation (PSO) contract worth almost £3.7m. Loganair will continue to operate the route from 26 March. The service will see two return flights each weekday and one return flight on a Sunday. The UK Government will contribute 50% of the total funds, (ie.about £1,8 million over the two years) with the Scottish government putting in £1.4m and Dundee City Council providing £400,000 of funding. UK Aviation Minister Lord Ahmad announced it, with comments about the importance of connections between Scotland and England for trade and tourism - "helping business and leisure travellers alike". So much of this public money is to assist leisure travel. The UK government funding is through the Regional Air Connectivity Fund, which aims to maintain connectivity between London and smaller regional airports, where routes are at risk of being withdrawn.
Click here to view full story...
Indian air travel pays 25% tax, but Delhi now cut tax for domestic flights only to 1%
Unlike the UK, India puts VAT on the price of jet fuel. Sales Tax (levied by the State Governments) averages across India at 25%. But now domestic air travel from Delhi is likely to get cheaper with the Delhi government deciding to cut value added tax on aircraft turbine fuel (ATF) to 1% from the existing rate of 25%. As part of the central government’s connectivity scheme, the Delhi government reduced VAT on ATF by 24% to boost links with smaller airports in its budget for the year 2017-18. Delhi will have cheaper air links especially to the smaller airports to the north west. India is the world's fastest-growing aviation market but most of the air travel is between big cities. Under the regional connectivity scheme, the government will subsidise part of the cost for airlines to operate flights to smaller towns. Jet fuel is one of the biggest costs for airlines, especially for low-cost carriers such as IndiGo Airlines, owned by InterGlobe Aviation, SpiceJet and GoAir. Airline shares rose on the news.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow’s head of property excited about redevelopment opportunities and maximising revenues from airport’s property
Talking to Property Weekly, Heathrow's head of property and facilities, John Arbuckle, is bullish and "excited" about all the property and developments he is looking forward to, with a 3rd runway, He can see "redevelopment opportunities as well as maximising revenues from the airport’s property." The Heathrow investment property portfolio is worth around £2bn, and that will grow when more land is obtained (by compulsory purchase, and by buying up homes that will be too polluted or too noise to live in). Heathrow now has around "1.9m sq ft of buildings, 100 hectares of leased land, more than 200 houses and 807,000 sq ft of warehousing and offices leased from third parties." Heathrow also owns around 1,250 hectares of land around the airport. It is expected that there will be more hotels, for the expanded airport. John Arbuckle, in typically bullish Heathrow fashion, hopes to "put the building blocks in place for a third runway in 2025." He manages to coyly avoid mentioning the destruction of much of Harmondsworth and parts of the Heathrow villages, and compulsory purchase, just talking about the airport "working closely with our local communities" and "being great neighbours to the local community.” Property companies are rubbing their hands with glee at increased demand for commercial office and industrial space near Heathrow.
Click here to view full story...
Aviation biofuels: “Won’t get fooled again” – why they will not solve aviation’s CO2 problems
An analyst with Transport & Environment questions whether biofuels could ever make more than a minute impact on aviation carbon emissions. He says we know from past experience with biofuels for road vehicles that they can actually be worse for the environment than the fossil fuels they replace. Unless biofuels are sourced very carefully indeed, they rise causing drastic changes in land use, including deforestation and peatland drainage. Even if biofuels could be produced on land currently used for agriculture, this means there are indirect land use changes (ILUC) meaning that whatever was previously produced there needs to be produced somewhere else. ie. the result may be cutting down forests to create new land to grow crops. Guarantees are needed to ensure that fuels worse than kerosene are not promoted - in terms of carbon emissions, but also loss of wildlife or violation of human rights. "The aviation sector often hypes up a new technology as the solution to its climate problem, only to admit that it is not feasible or prohibitively expensive. It quickly moves on to another ‘solution’. All this serves to convince policymakers that sustainable aviation is around the corner. Biofuels may be the latest example of this strategy." Aviation biofuels, at a very minimum, must be better on carbon and environmental impact than fuels they replace.
Click here to view full story...
APD rises by only rate of RPI but that does not stop Heathrow and AOA complaining (again …) it should be cut
Air Passenger Duty is just £13 for an adult (over 18) for any return flight to Europe. It is £26 for a return flight inside the UK. It is just £75 for an adult to any destination further away than 2,000 miles, and higher for higher class tickets. Air travel pays no VAT and no fuel duty, and the combined amount per year that these two could bring in amounts to around £8 - 10 billion per year, even after the receipts from APD are taken into account. APD is charged by the Treasury because there is no logical reason why air travel (most of which is discretionary, and much of which is for pleasure) should be untaxed. After cutting the rate of longer haul APD (over 4,000 miles) in April 2915, the tax as just risen by the rate of inflation - RPI. But the airlines complain about it every time there is a budget. Now Heathrow and the Airport Operators Association have complained again, that APD has not been cut. They would like to see air travel almost not taxed at all, to boost the number of passengers -and hence their profits. Heathrow has the DfT falling over itself to promote its 3rd runway. It is a little distasteful for it to be pressing for effectively further subsidy, when its runway would end up costing the taxpayer a huge amount in necessary improvements to surface access, which the airport is unwilling to stump up for. It is indeed a very greedy industry, relentless in its demands.
Click here to view full story...
“Heathrow 2.0” glossy report attempts to portray a 3-runway airport as “green” and aiming to be “carbon neutral”…..
Heathrow has regularly produced annual sustainability reports (they do not seem to be on its website any longer). The report from 2014 is here. Now, in an a serious attempt to be seen as a truly "environmentally friendly" airport they have produced a glossy report called "Heathrow 2.0" which endeavours to show that - with 50% more flights, producing nearly 50% more CO2 emissions, is a shining example of environmental leadership for us all. Some ex-environmental campaigners helped Heathrow put the report together. While it is hugely to be welcomed that Heathrow will try to have as low an environmental footprint as possible, within the airport itself - the problem is confusing that with the immense environmental impact the airport has outside its perimeter. The report has nothing much to say on that, other than offsetting schemes of one sort or another. The airport hopes to become "carbon neutral" but that is only by offsetting - effectively buying the emissions reductions of others. Heathrow wants to be seen to be "green" by helping to fund some peat-bog restoration, and buying renewable energy. It aims to do a bit more on preventing illegal trafficking of wildlife through its air freight etc etc et. All laudable stuff. But there is no reason why Heathrow needs to have another runway, in order to do all these good environmental things that it could perfectly well be doing (should be doing) as a 2 runway airport. Check the report for high level greenwash ....
Click here to view full story...
£150m bid race for Luton airport light rail link from station to terminal
Luton Airport has started the bid race for up to £150m worth of construction work for a planned new light railway system. This will be paid for by Luton council. It has appointed Arup to design and press through the mass passenger transport scheme. It would be a 2.1km long guided mass rapid transit system, to run between two purpose-built stations, heading out from Stirling Place, close to Luton Airport Parkway station, to the airport terminal. It will be broken down into two main packages. Work worth up to £115m will include viaducts, embankments, cut and cover works and station platforms. Some of the works will be within the airside sections of the airport. The track, rolling stock and associated systems package will be subject to a separate contract worth up to £35m, to be awarded concurrently. The light rail scheme forms part of a £1.5 billion inward investment programme by Luton council, with a 20-year plan for major transformation of the town. Planning permission is being sought from Luton Borough Council (which conveniently owns the airport) and Central Bedfordshire Council. They hope work could start later in 2017, and it would open in 2021 with the intention of the journey time from Luton to St Pancras being cut to 30 minutes.