General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Advertising Standards Agency confirms that Heathrow and Gatwick aren’t actually in London
A complaint was made (it is not clear by whom) against an advert by London City Airport in June 2016. The advert stated that "Business or pleasure, time is on your side when you fly from London City Airport ... Fly with British Airways or Flybe from Edinburgh, or from Glasgow with British Airways, to the only airport actually located in the city of London...." etc. The complaint was its claim that London City is the only airport in the city of London. It is, of course, not in the square mile of the City of London. The ASA accepted that “the city of London” was intended to refer to inner London, as opposed to the “square mile” City of London. City airport has an E16 postcode, which Heathrow has a TW6 postcode. The ASA said the primary message of the ad was the time that could be saved by flying from or to London City Airport, which they accepted. They therefore said the ad would not mislead, dismissed the complaint, and it was not in breach of advertising codes. Many airports call themselves "London" airports, regardless of the length of journey to get to them from central London.
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Government spent ‘eye-watering’ £10k a day (£3.8m so far…) on legal etc consultants over 3rd runway
The Government has been criticised for the DfT spending an average of £10,000 per day on consultants and law firms to decide if a 3rd runway should be built at Heathrow. The DfT is reported to have spent more than £3.8million on external firms since the Airport Commission published a report in July 2015, saying Heathrow was the best location for a new runway. A FoI request by the Press Association showed that the lion's share of the money has gone to financial advisers N M Rothschild & Sons, who filed 4 invoices totalling £1.46 million, which were paid between July last year and October 2016. Law firm DLA Piper UK was also paid £1.09 million between August 2015 and October 2016, while Allen & Overy received £152,955.60 between January and September this year. Professional services firm Ernst & Young filed 2 invoices worth £138,765 for consultancy work, paid between March and August 2016. New MP for Richmond Park, Sarah Olney, said: "These are eye-watering sums, over £10,000 a day, to pay consultants for an airport people don't want." For this runway "the people lose out and the only gainers are highly paid consultants." Taxpayers' money has been wasted by the DfT despite deciding "long before it was going to be Heathrow whatever the evidence". Far, far more public money will also be spent, if the runway went ahead.
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Prospect of more low cost, no frills, flights from UK to USA by airlines like Norwegian
We face the prospect of flying becoming even cheaper, encouraging yet more "hyper-mobility" and "binge flying". This is not just from the UK government hoping to add another runway at Heathrow, so hugely increasing UK airport capacity (and in doing so, threatening UK carbon targets) but from more no-frills, budget long haul trips. Norwegian, the Scandinavian airline that Gatwick has high hopes of, is offering one-way flights from Edinburgh to New York starting at £56. Some analysts believe 2017 could turn out to be the breakthrough year for low-cost, long-haul with a boom in the number of routes being offered, mainly on the North Atlantic network, but with other flights added into Asia and possibility South America. Back in 1977 Freddie Laker tried cheap transatlantic flights but by 1982 "Skytrain" had gone bust; priced out by airlines that dropped their fares to put Laker out of business. The low cost model might have more chance now, with lighter planes burning less fuel per unit distance, eg. Boeing 787 Dreamliner and 737 Max, and the A350 XWB and A321Neo from Airbus, and engine makers using lighter alloys. Efforts are being made to cut weight, eg. taking out screens on seats. The lighter planes can also fly further on the same amount of fuel.
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Mary Creagh, Chair of EAC, writes to Grayling for clarification on government position on growth of UK aviation CO2
On 30th November, Chris Grayling gave evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) about their concerns regarding a 3rd Heathrow runway. Chris Grayling gave very inadequate responses on carbon emissions, and whether the government planned to keep to the cap recommended (since 2009) by the Committee on Climate Change. This is that UK aviation CO2 should not rise above about 37.5MtCo2 per year by 2050. That is the level in 2005. Now Mary Creagh MP, the Chair of the EAC, has written to Chris Grayling to get some confirmation of the government's position. She asks: "Could you please tell us: Whether the Government will be working towards the CCC’s planning assumption for actual UK aviation emissions to be around 2005 levels by 2050? If so, whether you accept the CCC’s advice that this implies an increase in passenger growth of around 60% over the same period (which already takes into account forecasts around the impact of the the chronological and other advances that we discussed in the hearing)? If not, what empirical basis is the Government using to support its assumption that excess emissions from aviation can be compensated for by deeper cuts from other sectors." She has asked for a reply by the 11th January, and the EAC will publicise it.
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Belfast City Airport sold by EISER Finance Ltd to 3i Investments plc along with other assets
George Best Belfast City Airport has been sold as part of a package of UK and European assets. The owners are EISER Finance Ltd, which took control of ABN AMRO Global Infrastructure Fund. They paid £132.5 million for the airport in 2008 from former Spanish owners Ferrovial Group. Ferrovial had paid £35m for the airport in 2003. EISER is selling the assets to 3i funds, managed by 3i Investments plc. It's understood the sale will have no impact on the day-to-day running of the airport. EISER has spent around £20m on improvements to the airport over the last eight years. As well as George Best Belfast City Airport, the deal also includes gas transporter and electricity network East Surrey Pipelines. EISER Global Infrastructure Fund (EGIF) is also selling assets in Italy and Spain to 3i as part of the deal, which is worth hundreds millions of pounds. Reports earlier this year suggested that 3i could pay as much as €600m (£509.5m) for the package. The proposed sale was first revealed in the Belfast Telegraph in April but has only now been finalised. The number of departure seats which the airport can sell in a year is currently capped at two million. In its accounts for 2015, the airport reported operating profits, before exceptional items, of £3.3m, up from £2.4m.
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BA flight from Gibraltar to Heathrow carried merely 3 passengers (could have carried 150)
The Metro reports on a British Airways flight, in mid December, from Gibraltar to Heathrow (two and a half hour flight) - with just 3 passengers. The plane could have carried about 150 passengers. Due to some sort of mix up with the 3 passengers being told the plane was late, another plane had taken off earlier and that was - presumably - fairly full The 3 passengers had only paid £80 for a return ticket, for a 3 day trip to Gibraltar. (This is the sort of flight that is taking up a slot at Heathrow, just for the lowest cost, off-chance leisure travel). The 3 throughly enjoyed themselves etc and were given the perks of being bumped up to business class. But this plane flew with almost no passengers, still emitting almost as much as it would have done with a full load. There are many anecdotal reports of planes flying to and from Heathrow with a huge number of empty seats. Had these three girls not been so keen to advertise the fun they had had, and their selfies of their trip, it might not have come to public attention. Presumably the flight took place, to position the plane for the next day's trips. It is nevertheless a glaring example of a Heathrow slot not being used in the way (low emissions, boosting UK economic growth etc....) Heathrow would like the government etc to believe.
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Sir David Higgins to take on role of Gatwick Chairman, with Sir Roy McNulty staying as deputy chairman
Sir David Higgins, who is currently the chairman of High Speed 2 (HS2), has been appointed chairman of Gatwick airport. He takes up his post on January 1st. He replaces Sir Roy McNulty who will remain on the board at Gatwick as deputy chairman. Sir David Higgins has said the case for Gatwick to get a 2nd runway "remains strong" though "the challenge for Gatwick now is to continue to invest so it can maximise the use of its existing facilities and so can do even more for Britain in the coming years." He has been chairman of the HS2 high speed rail project since March 2014. He is paid £240,000 for three days a week at HS2 and is understood to be remaining in post as chair for up to a year, until a replacement is found and as the search for a new chief executive continues.
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Flybe starts flights from Edinburgh and Aberdeen to Heathrow from March 2017
New regular flights from Aberdeen and Edinburgh to Heathrow, starting on 26th March 2017, have been announced by Flybe. These will be Flybe's first flights to Heathrow. There will be 4 flights from Edinburgh on weekdays, and 3 from Aberdeen, making a total of 40 weekly flights per week. They will be using slots made available to Flybe at the insistence of the European Commission, after the takeover of BMI. Airlines hope to get Scottish passengers to link into long haul flights from Heathrow, with all the usual claims about economic benefits etc. Simon Calder says Flybe will inherit the dormant Heathrow slots and will challenge British Airways on the Edinburgh and Aberdeen routes. The fares may fall due to the competition. But the BA flights will be faster. The air fares could be around £85 to £130 for a return ticket.
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“Back Heathrow” tries to blame councils for having to spend money, defending themselves against its runway plans
The lobby group funded and staffed by Heathrow, "Back Heathrow", has had the (ill judged) nerve to criticise councils for spending money to oppose their expansion plans. Back Heathrow has attacked Hillingdon Council for spending more than £800,000 between 2007 and August 2016 on fighting the 3rd runway, while cutting public services. Back Heathrow say Hillingdon is having to make cuts of £309,000 in early support service and children’s centres, with the threat of £100,000 more cuts next year. And they complain that Richmond has spent nearly £109,000 opposing Heathrow expansion between 2007 and 2014 - and so on with other councils. Heathrow is trying to give the impression that residents in these boroughs want the runway, and councils are wasting money. They ignore the inconvenient fact that there is huge opposition to the runway within these councils, and the councils can see not only the effect of noise, air pollution and congestion the runway would cause, but also the social and infrastructure stresses - for example, on housing demand. Heathrow's plans are costing, and could continue to cost, these councils a great deal of money. Heathrow is responsible for a lot of public money that taxpayers would have to fork out, to deal with the impact of its expansion.
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Scottish draft budget confirms intention to cut APD by 50% by the end of the Parliament
In the Draft Scottish Budget announced by Derek Mackay, he confirmed that the Scottish government now has the power to legislate for a tax which will replace Air Passenger Duty (APD) in Scotland. " ...we will introduce a Bill in the first year of the current Parliament to establish the tax which will replace APD in Scotland from 1 April 2018. We remain committed to delivering a 50% reduction in the overall tax burden of APD by the end of this Parliament." He hopes this will "deliver sustainable growth for the Scottish economy by helping to generate new direct air routes, sustain existing routes and increase inbound tourism." There is, naturally, no mention of the money lost to Scotland by more outbound tourism. The Scottish Government expects APD will raise £326 million in 2018-19 for them, and £342 million in 2019-20. Edinburgh Airport Watch commented that Mr Mackay did not mention how he will plug the resulting £150 million hole in Scotland's public finances, or the generous tax incentives already enjoyed by aviation - no duty or VAT payable on aviation fuel, no VAT on purchases of aircraft, or on servicing of aircraft. Airports enjoy a huge tax break in the form of Duty Free Shopping – an enormous cash earner for Airport owners. APD is a fair and progressive tax on an exceptionally lightly taxed industry.