General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Environmental Audit Cttee calls for rapid implementation of key environmental principles in policymaking across Government
The Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) argues that there is no reason for any further delay to the roll-out of the Government’s Environmental Principles, (integration, prevention, rectification at source, polluter pays and precautionary principles) which are intended to be binding on policymakers across many areas of central government. Including aviation. The Government has been designing its environmental principles for over four years. Now that the requirement on policymakers to observe environmental principles has been enacted in the Environment Act 2021, there is concern that further delay in implementation will risk principles being sidestepped by Whitehall rather than embraced. The EAC is calling for rapid finalisation and implementation of the policy statement presented to Parliament in May 2022. The Government must deliver on its ambition for the policy statement to be finalised and embedded across government policymaking, by autumn of 2022. The UK was previously obliged to follow environmental principles in the EU Treaties, and is still bound by a number of international agreements on environmental protection. Brexit offered a significant opportunity to shape the implementation of environmental principles to domestic circumstances.
Click here to view full story...
EU lawmakers to stop biofuels, that compete with food, from fuelling planes
The European Parliament has barred the use of controversial biofuel feedstocks, including intermediate crops and palm oil by-products (PFADs), from Europe’s aviation "green" fuel mandate (ReFuelEU). Environmental NGO, "Transport & Environment" (T&E) has asked the 3 main European institutions – the Parliament, the Council and the Commission – to keep the momentum going by excluding the last remaining problematic feedstock – animal fats (of the third category) – in their upcoming negotiations in September. Matteo Mirolo, T&E aviation policy officer, said: “Sustainable aviation fuels should have no link whatsoever to deforestation, loss of biodiversity and increasing food prices.” Excluding these feedstocks from the definition was an important step to avoid devastating consequences for the climate. But animal fats remain included in the definition of what constitutes a green fuel in Europe. Animal fats are by-products of the animal slaughter process. They are used in competing industries, creating shortages in sectors that already use them. T&E support the use of electro-fuels.
Click here to view full story...
Letter from Zack Polanski (Chair of London Assembly Environment Cttee) to Gatwick’s Stewart Wingate,
The Gatwick consultation ends on 27th July. In a letter to Gatwick's CEO, Stewart Wingate, Zack Polanski (London Assembly Member and Chair of London's Environment Committee), sets out reasons to oppose the planned expansion of the airport. He says aviation in the UK already adds around 10% of the country's climate impact, compared to around 2% as the global average - indicating how much British people fly. The proportion of people who (before Covid) flew in any one year is about 50%, which is far higher than the global average. The Climate Change Committee has said that a restriction on air travel demand is needed. So any airport expansion is completely at variance with that. There are no realistic technologies, available in the next 20 - 30 years, to enable a large amount of zero carbon flying. It just won't happen. "Airlines are out of control; they fail to meet even basic climate targets and are marking their own homework." The Mayor of London has said: “I fail to see how any airport expansion can be justified, being incompatible with achieving the UK’s net zero target”. Expanding Gatwick will worsen air pollution, and road and rail congestion, with negative effects on London as well as locally.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow makes a loss in first half of 2022; debt increases; RAB increases
Heathrow airport has reported a £321m adjusted pretax loss for the first half of the year after weeks of lengthy queues and flight cancellations, with passenger numbers back at near pre-pandemic levels. It recently had to announce a daily cap of 100,000 passengers until early September. It estimated that airlines were lacking about 30% of ground handling staff compared with before Covid. The airport said it did not expect to pay any dividends to its shareholders for the rest of the year. Heathrow's revenue in the 6 months to 30th June was £1,280 million, compared to £348 million in 2021, and £712m in 2020, and £1,461m in 2019. The £231 million loss in 2022 compares with a loss of £787m in 2021, a loss of £471m in 2020, and a £153m profit in 2019. Heathrow's Regulated Asset Base (RAB), on the size of which it can levy passenger charges, was £18,425m in 2022, compared to £17,474m in 2021, £16,516m in 2020 and £16,598m in 2019. Heathrow Finance plc consolidated nominal net debt was £15,561 million in 2022, compared to £15,440m in 2021, £14,932m in 2020 and £14,361m in 2019. ie. it has risen a lot.
Click here to view full story...
Government remains committed to airport expansions
In its Jet Zero Strategy, which is all the UK has in place of a proper aviation policy, the government will continue to support “justified” airport expansions while - claiming it is working to "make the UK’s aviation sector net zero by 2050." While there are no realistic means of cutting aviation CO2 emissions, at any scale, for decades to come, the DfT wants to continue to encourage more air travel. The means of purporting to cut aviation emissions, without actually cutting the amount of CO2 that comes out of jet engines, are using alternative (allegedly lower carbon) jet fuels, by carbon capture and permanent storage (that is not going to happen at any scale any time soon) and some tweaks to aircraft design. The DfT will continue to support airport expansions as it has “a role to play in realising the benefits for the UK through boosting our global connectivity and levelling up”. It believes that the existing policy frameworks for airport planning “provide a robust and balanced framework for airports to grow sustainably within our strict environmental criteria”. A true case of "sustainable growth" being a nonsensical oxymoron. The only way to limit UK aviation emissions is fewer flights, and fewer air trips. One way to assist that would be not expanding any airports.
Click here to view full story...
Inadequate Jet Zero strategy criticised by environmental groups and even pilots
The DfT has produced its "Jet Zero Strategy" which is the nearest thing there is to an aviation policy for the UK. Though, as that, it is entirely inadequate. Leading environmental groups - Green Alliance, Friends of the Earth, Possible, Transport & Environment and AEF - have explained why the strategy is ineffective, in cutting future aviation CO2 emissions. The Climate Change Committee's annual report, published in June, found the aviation industry (also agriculture) is unprepared for meeting the UK's legally binding climate targets for "net zero" by 2050. The Jet Zero strategy needs to have detailed policy proposals on how its ambitions will be achieved, with specific policy mechanisms to create incentives for the development and deployment of zero emission aircraft and sustainable aviation fuels. It should have a detailed decarbonisation pathway that achieves genuine carbon reductions before 2035, not only after then. It needs to have a plan to curb air passenger demand, as novel and untested technological solutions - on which the strategy largely depends - cannot be relied up. Even BALPA, the pilots' union, has said the strategy places too much faith is future technologies, that may not deliver.
Click here to view full story...
DfT publishes “Jet Zero Strategy” … “so passengers can look forward to guilt-free travel”
The DfT has published its "Jet Zero Strategy", such as it is. For net emissions, not all emissions. Predictably, it does not propose realistic cuts in aviation carbon emissions, nor any measures to reduce air travel demand. The Strategy says: "We are introducing a CO2 emissions reduction trajectory that sees aviation emissions peak in 2019. [39.6MtCO2]. This trajectory from 2025 to 2050, is based on our "High ambition" scenario, and sets ambitious [sic] in-sector targets of 35.4 MtCO2e in 2030, 28.4 MtCO2e in 2040, and 19.3 MtCO2e in 2050." The level was about 18MtCO2 in 1990. So it will take 30 more years, to get them back to the 1990 level (by which time, the UK should - miraculously - have become "net zero". The strategy makes no mention of air travel demand management, which would be the simplest and most effective mechanism to cut emissions. Instead there are hopes of tech solutions of all sorts (none that could become commercially viable for decades) and the intention to have a mandate for jet fuel to contain 10% SAF by 2030. Problem with that is "sustainable aviation fuels" have their own considerable carbon and environmental downsides. The aviation industry will be happy - they can keep on growing ...
Click here to view full story...
Protesters at Farnborough as Government launches deeply inadequate “Jet Zero Strategy”
Earlier in the year, the DfT had a consultation on its "Jet Zero" proposals. At the Farnborough air show, it has now announced it Jet Zero Strategy. Predictably, it does not propose realistic cuts in aviation carbon emissions, nor any measures to reduce air travel demand - as had been recommended by the Climate Change Committee. Yet Jet Zero supports the unconstrained growth of flying and airport expansion. The strategy has been criticised by independent experts and climate campaigners for its failure to include any measures to limit demand for flying. Instead, it takes a high risk approach of assuming that emissions reduction will be achieved solely by the introduction of alternative fuels, new technologies and widely discredited offsetting. The strategy allows for UK aviation emissions to continue to rise, rather than the drastic cuts in all greenhouse gas emissions that are urgently needed, by 2030. Protesters went to Farnborough, to mark the launch of the (non) strategy, with the slogans "Pigs Might Fly" and "Green Aviation = Flight of Fancy."
Click here to view full story...
High Court rules UK “net zero by 2050” plan is too vague, with no clear policy pathway
The high court has ordered the UK government to outline exactly how its "net zero" greenhouse gas (GHG) policies will achieve CO2 emissions targets by 2050. Friends of the Earth, ClientEarth and the Good Law Project had made a legal challenge about the government’s vague climate change strategy, as it lacks the necessary policies to achieve its targets. Now Justice David Holgate has ruled that the plan is unlawful, regarding government obligations under the Climate Change Act. The government does not know how various individual policies could contribute to achieving the legally binding climate target, and therefore could not properly assess the plan's credibility. Judge Holgate said a detailed and quantified explanation of how the policies would achieve net zero GHG emissions by 2050 was important for holding ministers to account and for “transparency”, for everyone to understand. He ordered ministers to publish an updated strategy by the end of March 2023. The Climate Change Committee has aid there was “scant evidence” of delivery against the high-level target, with major policy gaps in key areas - such as aviation.
Click here to view full story...
Travel chaos won’t bother Heathrow, “the ATM with runways attached”
Heathrow has been highly profitable for its owners, which include Ferrovial, the Qatari sovereign wealth fund, and USS, the British academics’ pension scheme. Since 2012, the owners have taken £4 billion in dividends (but nothing in 2021 and only £100m in 2020)— and Heathrow is still valued at more than £17 billion. But it has £16 billion of debt to boost the returns. These amazing economics are due to the antiquated way Heathrow is regulated. Because it’s a monopoly, for long haul flights, the CAA sets its returns, using the "regulated asset base" (RAB), and decides what it can charge airlines on the back of that. But this encourages the owners to throw as many costs as they can on to the RAB. Inflating Heathrow’s value means they get paid more. So wherever it can, Heathrow gold-plates spending - with everything costing as much as possible. Much of Heathrow's income comes from passenger charges, which were £19 pre-Covid; the CAA allowed a temporary increase to £30; and they now have to fall back to £26 by 2026. Heathrow has been described as "a cash machine with a couple of runways attached." At least it now seems the 3rd runway is unlikely to be built.