General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
East Midlands Airport to refurbish full runway over weekends (nothing more ever heard of about the 2009 plans for a runway extension)
East Midlands Airport has announced that it will undertake a full length runway refurbishment project from 5th November till 19th December 2016. Therefore the airport will be closed to all traffic for 48 hours (8pm Saturday to 8pm Monday) each weekend, on 7 consecutive weekends. The airport hopes this will cause the least disruption to its airlines, and not affect the imports for Christmas. The timing avoids the busy summer holiday season when the airport makes a lot of money out the low cost leisure travel. The plan is for around 360 workers (Galliford Try is the principle contractor) every weekend laying 50,000 tonnes of specially formulated material across 150,000 square metres of runway etc n total. While the runway is closed, the airport is also replacing over 1,200 lights on and around the area with LED lighting, which uses less electricity than the previous lighting, cutting airport energy costs. East Midlands' runway was last refurbished in 1999, and has a natural lifespan of around 12-17 years. They are all hoping the work will be done on time and within the weekend periods. The airport hoped, in its forecasts around 2005, to have 4 times as much freight in 2016 as it had in 2004. The level has actually risen by just a few %. They also then hoped for a doubling of flights and passengers. The number of flights has barely risen and the number of passengers has slightly fallen. So much for forecasts.
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Richmond Council leader dismisses Heathrow’s claims that neighbouring boroughs support its expansion
Richmond Council leader Lord True has laughed off Heathrow’s suggestion there is support for the airport’s expansion in neighbouring boroughs as “nothing more than PR spin.” Heathrow has recently claimed that in a new poll the majority of residents living in the 12 neighbouring constituencies support its 3rd runway. Heathrow's line is to ignore the serious environmental (noise, air pollution, CO2) impacts and the local congestion and social impacts, and focus on claims about jobs etc. Heathrow hopes to persuade government that the runway will provide huge numbers of jobs in building and related to the airport, apprenticeships and also benefits to the regions. Heathrow also constantly repeats the mantra that it has "met or exceeded" the environmental conditions set by the Airports Commission - which it actually has not. Heathrow's sound bite is that "people living nearby can feel confident that Heathrow can be bigger and better.” Lord True says only 34% in Richmond and 38% in Twickenham favour a 3rd runway. Both Heathrow and Gatwick have been polling, with each producing results claiming to show support for their runway in London. Both are trying to capitalise on the uncertainty caused by the Brexit vote, and the UK's future international links with EU and Non-EU countries.
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Gatwick establishes “Growth Board” under Tessa Jowell and Steve Norris to develop benefits from its growth
Gatwick has announced the formation of the new "Gatwick Growth Board" (the GGB) under Co-Chairs Tessa Jowell and Steve Norris. The GGB will "examine the wider economic and social impacts of Gatwick Airport’s future growth and expansion plans on the local area, the South East region, and on the economy of the UK as a whole." Gatwick hopes the GGB will ensure "the benefits of Gatwick expansion are properly distributed across the region and the rest of the UK, such that areas most in need of regeneration benefit appropriately from its plans." Quite how it will do this is not revealed, nor why it is only at this late stage that Gatwick has felt it necessary to try to demonstrate benefit of a 2nd runway for the UK as a whole. The board will have no official powers or authority. Gatwick realises it carries very little air freight, and deals largely with leisure low cost, point to point travel. Most of its flights are to one or other European holiday destination. They hope their new runway would be open by 2025. The GGB is to work for two years, and it will produce "regular reports and studies" for Gatwick, with the first starting this September. These will look at how Gatwick fits with Britain's withdrawal from the EU, employment impacts on the regions from sucking more low cost travel to the south east, and how it can have an impact on the regions. Gatwick must be worried by the public realisation that it contributes l ittle to the UK economy as a whole.
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Government spending 6 times more on transport per person in London than in North West
Mr Crausby, MP for Bolton North East, has criticised the government after new figures showed it is spending six times more on transport projects in London than in the North West. The Institute Public Policy Research (IPPR) reported that over the next 5 years the Conservative government will spend £290 per person on transport for Bolton. That compares to £1,870 that London will be given per person for the same period. The IPPR study found the £4.6 billion to be spent on completing Crossrail during 2016-21 will exceed spending on all transport projects in the North (£4.3 billion). Mr Crausby said this was "a slap in the face" and that the "government should be investing in our future.” He added that “The current government’s behaviour towards northern transport is worrying and they don’t seem to be listening.” Ed Cox, Director of IPPR North, urged the new Secretary of State for Transport, Chris Grayling, to adopt a ‘North First’ approach, and make the most of low interest rates to create a £50bn “catch-up cash fund” to be invested in northern road and rail priorities. . Mr Cox’s proposal is supported by the IPPR North’s statement that the North’s "£300bn economy is worth more than those of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland combined." IPPR director Tom Kibasi said: “Given the Brexit result, the North of England must urgently see growing prosperity."
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Claims that Heathrow runway delay “costs UK £6 million per day” shown to be massively exaggerated
Claims have been made about how important it is for the government to make a runway decision fast, and how massive amounts of money are being (allegedly !) lost to the UK economy every single day of delay. A new grouping - the "British Infrastructure Group" - BIG - led by Tory MP Grant Shapps suggests the sum is up to £6 million per day". Fact Checker" has looked into this, and how the claims are calculated, and they find them to be very dodgy indeed. It's complicated economics, but at heart they looked at the possible maximum benefits that the Airports Commission said a Heathrow might generate, over 60 YEARS. Then they worked out that, backwards, to a sum per day. There are various assumptions that should, and should not, be made when working out that sort of calculation and assessing possible future values. Their sum of "£6 million per day" depends on Heathrow producing a national benefit of £147 billion over 60 years. But the Airports Commission's own figures show that if the costs of carbon in the carbon capped scenarios reduce the possible national benefit of a Heathrow runway to around (amazingly tiny) just £1.4 billion over 60 years. That, divided up by day, is an insignificant amount (up to £64,000). Full Fact says: "Any precise figure will be uncertain."
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Aviation Week blog says forecast aviation demand is unsustainable and must be dampened
A blog in Aviation Week, by Antoine Gelain who works for an investment company, provides some cutting insights into demand for air travel. He says: "When it comes to sustainability of air travel, the aviation community is lying to itself. There is an elephant in the room and nobody wants to see it. Without more significant efforts—some would call them sacrifices—air travel will continue to be a huge contributor to this planet’s pollution and global warming, with dire consequences for future generations" ... and ... "The bottom line is that with all the talk about the aviation community being committed to action on climate change ... and about how various supply-driven measures will improve air travel’s sustainability, everybody knows that serious progress will not be achieved unless we address the other part of the equation, aviation’s “sacred cow”—demand." ... and ... "Air travel has essentially doubled in the past 15 years (and so have related CO2 emissions) and is expected to double again over the next 15 years. There is just no way supply-based measures such as technology and infrastructure improvements will come close to offsetting such rapid growth and its impact on the environment." ... and ... If we in the aviation community are really serious about addressing climate change, we first need to accept that the current and forecasted demand for air travel is unsustainable and therefore must be dampened." ... and more ....
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New runway would push up air fares due to carbon emissions, and restrict regional airports – new report
A new report for the Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) has analysed the Airports Commission’s backing for new runway in relation to carbon emissions, and says the necessary carbon pricing would end low-cost flights by 2050. The Commission was aware that UK aviation is expected to far exceed the cap set for the sector's CO2 emissions (37.5MtCO2) before 2050. Adding another runway only makes the situation far worse, by exacerbating the problem. The only way to keep aviation emissions down, with a new runway, is greatly increased cost of flights, trying to reduce the demand that has been increased by adding capacity. This means a carbon price massively higher than today - at several hundred £s. The report, by Leo Barasi and Leo Murray, say that as well as making flights expensive (perhaps pricing out those on low pay) the addition of a new SE runway means growth at regional airports would have to be restricted to allow expanded London capacity. Dame Julia King, who was on the Airports Commission and is on the Committee on Climate Change, admits that regional airports would need to be restricted in order to allow growth in the south east. There has been far too little assessment and acknowledgement of the CO2 implications of a runway. The government should not rush into approving a runway until this has been fully accepted.
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EU clears massive €2.2bn investment package by German government to complete Berlin Brandenburg airport
The European Commission has approved financial support for Berlin’s long-delayed airport project, deciding that German government funding aimed at completing the facility is in line with EU state aid rules. The EU said the planned investment is “made on market terms and will thus involve no state aid to airport operator FBB.” FBB is co-owned by the Berlin city authority, the surrounding region of Brandenburg and the German federal government. In January 2016, Germany notified plans by the airport's public shareholders to grant a €1.1 billion shareholder loan and a shareholder guarantee covering additional debt financing of up to €1.1 billion to FBB. The financing to be covered by the shareholder guarantee will be provided by commercial banks. Part of the investment is to address technical issues (for example, with the fire protection system), and to enhance noise protection. The rest will be used to increase capacity, as traffic growth will exceed the previous forecasts on which the initial project was based. Interventions by public authorities in companies can be considered free of state aid when they are carried out at conditions that a private investor would have accepted (according to the so-called "market economy investor principle" – even if no private investor had considered the investment attractive. The airport was initially meant to open in 2011 but has had a succession of show-stopping problems.
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CAGNE report shows how widespread and unacceptable Gatwick 2nd runway noise would be
Local Gatwick community group, CAGNE (Communities Against Gatwick Noise and Emissions) had produced a new short report on the extent of the noise impact a 2nd Gatwick runway would have. CAGNE says Gatwick’s local communities have been side-lined as the airport has failed to develop a proper strategy to deal with aircraft noise with expansion. A second runway would mean double the number of people impacted by night flights and create 24-hour “noise ghetto from hell.” CAGNE says Gatwick’s expansion proposals contravene Government policy on aircraft noise by failing to incorporate measures which would reduce noise. This is especially unsatisfactory as the Government is likely to make a runway decision, or at least a statement of preference between Heathrow and Gatwick, in early September or in October. The unacceptable noise burden from Heathrow is well known. Gatwick has tried to make out that its noise problem is small by comparison. However, CAGNE shows that Gatwick (with a 2nd runway it would be the size of Heathrow now) plans to use both runways in segregated mode, so both are used all day for both landings and take offs. This does not allow the half day respite from which those under Heathrow flights benefit. Gatwick also plans to continue night flights all night, which Heathrow has been told it cannot do.
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Scottish government to press on with plans to scrap air passenger duty
The Scottish consultation on cutting APD ran from 14th March to 2nd June 2016. The Scottish Government wants to press ahead with plans to cut air passenger duty (APD) by 50% by 2012, in stages starting in 2018. They are keen to do this, despite a majority of people who responded to a public consultation raising concerns about the move. The ruling Scottish National Party has long advocated the halving of APD when it takes control of the tax in 2018. But until now it has not had enough votes to push the move through, as all the other main parties had been against any cut. The Brexit vote has led Scottish Conservatives to rethink their stance and they are now set to drop their opposition. It is expected the cut will be unveiled in the 2017/18 budget, the first under new Finance Secretary Derek Mackay. Mr Mackay said he believed APD was a tax that acts as a barrier to Scotland's ability to secure new direct international routes and maintain existing ones. The SNP also wants to abolish the tax entirely when public finances allow, and hope it will save "families going on holiday hundreds of pounds" and also "bring in an estimated one million passengers to Scotland every year, with airlines poised to introduce new routes." Edinburgh airport CEO Gordon Dewar told MSPs an APD cut was "even more vital in the wake of the vote to leave the EU."