General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Andrew Tyrie says economic case for a new runway unclear and based on “opaque” information
Andrew Tyrie is the chairman of the influential Commons Treasury select committee. He has now said parliament and the public had been left partly in the dark on the case for a new runway, because the Airports Commission's analysis is not good enough. He said the decision on airport expansion is being taken on the basis of information that was “opaque in a number of important respects.” Mr Tyrie said the robustness of the Airports commission’s conclusions could not be determined from the information in its report. “Parliament has demanded more transparency over the environmental case. At least as important is the economic case.” Mr Tyrie said it was impossible to tell if the potential economic benefits for the UK of the proposals by Heathrow or Gatwick differed significantly from one another, or even if the benefits of building either are significantly different from not building any new runways. "A decision as controversial as this — one that has bedevilled past governments for decades — requires as much transparency as reasonably possible.” Andrew Tyrie has written to George Osborne calling for more details of the calculations that led to the Commission recommending a Heathrow runway. He also called for the process to be moved from the DfT to the Treasury.
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Gatwick Airport Ambassador switches allegiance to Heathrow, and runway bid fails to gain traction with business
Back in early 2015, Emma Jones - the founder of Enterprise Nation - a small business support platform, was working for Gatwick airport and promoting its usefulness for business. She is quoted by Gatwick in March 2015 as saying how many of the UK's 5 million small businesses were looking to ‘Go Global’ and sell their products and services abroad. "To do so requires an easy-access airport and low cost flights to meet new contacts, research markets and source suppliers. It’s for these reasons that I support expansion at Gatwick ...." Then in November, Emma was appointed by David Cameron as one of six leading entrepreneurs to be business ambassadors with a focus on helping more small businesses export their products and services. And she is now working with Heathrow. It has been announced that Heathrow is to carry out a consultation with Enterprise Nation, to explore the impact of expanding Heathrow on the UK’s small and medium sized enterprises (SME). Emma said: "A quarter of all UK exports by value already travel through the airport. It will be interesting to see how an expanded Heathrow could make a real difference at a time when more people than ever before are starting and growing businesses
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Brexit up in the air: implications for aviation if the UK votes to leave the EU
CAPA, the Centre for Aviation, has set out some of the issues that UK aviation might face, if the UK chose to leave the EU - Brexit. CAPA says the biggest source of benefits to UK aviation from EU membership is in the area of traffic rights and the nationality of airlines. Any airline owned and controlled by nationals of EU member states is free to operate anywhere within the EU without restrictions on capacity, frequency or pricing. The European Common Aviation Area (ECAA) covers 36 countries and 500 million people. CAPA believes if the UK were to leave the EU, its airlines would no longer enjoy automatic access to this market, although the UK might negotiate continued access. The most obvious way for the UK to do this would be to participate in the ECAA Agreement in the same way as countries such as Norway currently do. CAPA says it would be questionable whether continued pan-European access would be popular in the EU for easyJet which has caused significant competitive damage to European legacy airlines. Being Irish, Ryanair would continue to have access to the European market, but if the UK had left the EU, this could cause Ryanair difficulties operating in what is its largest country market. Hence Michael O'Leary is backing the UK's continued EU membership.
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EasyJet CEO says UK should stay in the EU for low fares and airline benefits
easyJet will campaign for Britain to stay in the European Union, with its chief executive telling consumers that membership encourages low cost travel between European cities. easyJet 's CEO, Carolyn McCall, said the EU was good for its business and its customers. "We will do everything we can to make sure that consumers understand that they are far better off within the EU when it comes to connectivity and low fares," she said. Ms McCall is part of the pro-European lobby group, "Britain Stronger in Europe", headed by former Marks & Spencer chief executive Stuart Rose. EasyJet would not be shy about its support. easyJet operates over 600 routes, most of which are in the EU. Ms McCall said: "We think it would be very difficult for our government to negotiate with 27 other member states to get the flying rights that we have today within the EU." EasyJet has detailed contingency plans in place for if the UK votes to leave the EU, but they are not making these public. Ryanair has also urged Britain to stay in the EU. Though several large British businesses favour staying in the EU, often due to the benefits of tariff-less trade, many smaller firms feel the EU imposes what they argue are costly regulations.
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Uber scrap flat rate fares to London airports, but residents report problems with residential parking by drivers
Uber has announced it will stop offering flat rate fares to customers travelling to Heathrow and Gatwick Airport. Uber used to offer a series of set fares for trips to the London airports, so customers know what to expect when going on their holidays and leisure trips. Uber fares to Heathrow from west London would start at £30, while passengers from south east London could get to Gatwick for £50. Now the fares will be calculated on the time and distance, as they are for other Uber journeys. Customers can see from the phone app how much their trip will cost. Uber also announced that airport pick-ups will incur an additional surcharge, to cover minimum parking costs. However, there are a number of reports indicating that Uber cars are upsetting residents in areas near Heathrow, as large numbers park (for free) in residential roads, for hours, waiting for calls to pick up passengers. Waiting in streets with no facilities mean drivers have been reported urinating in gardens, or defecating near their cars. There have been complaints of groups of drivers appearing to be a threatening presence, being rude to residents, sleeping in their cars, and playing music into the night, while they wait. Uber and Heathrow are meant to be trying to sort out the problems. Problems are also reported in the Stansted area.
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Survey for National Infrastructure Commissions shows airports a very low priority for spending
A recent survey, done for the new National Infrastructure Commission, shows that aviation was not regarded as a high investment priority for the UK. The survey, by Copper Consultancy in June 2015, asked 2,000 adults in the UK their views on infrastructure. The highest priorities for investment were given as 43% for renewable energy; 39% for housebuilding and 32% for energy from waste. Then railways (31%), flood defences (30%) and major roads (30%). However, figures were nuclear power projects (19%), airports (8%) and coal and gas power stations (8%). When asked what would increase confidence in the infrastructure sector, respondents said community engagement (41%), consultation (30%), and leadership from politicians (25%) and technical experts (24%). The survey says its "focus groups demonstrated that the public is very positive about the state of the country’s..... airports. In contrast, they are much less positive towards other types of infrastructure, including flood defences and the railways". 36% regarded airports as highly rated. 49% believed there were not enough safeguards to protect the country's countryside and natural habitats, with only 6% saying there were too many safeguards for their protection. 58% believed the balance of power is too much in favour of developers' plans over the wishes of communities, and 6% said the opposite.
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Surrey County Council’s £3bn funding shortfall for new homes infrastructure – even before extra demand from a new runway
The Airports Commission expected that a 3rd Heathrow runway might require over 70,000 new homes to be built. The figure at Gatwick might be over 18,000. Other estimates put the figure higher - up to 45,000 at Gatwick. The estimate for the number of new schools required is 56, for Heathrow. The cost of the additional infrastructure, not only surface transport, has been glossed over. Meanwhile, the local authorities are very concerned about the cost of paying for roads, rail links, and schools - not to mention the medical facilities, water, sewage, other utilities etc etc. for current housing demand - let alone the extra runway-generated demand. Surrey County Council (SCC) has assessed housing need and local plans over the next 15 years, and revealed a gap in funding for roads, public transport, school places, flood defences and other infrastructure. Only considering schemes currently planned to deliver more housing, SCC says it cannot fund the around £3 billion shortfall. It will need assistance from central government. Their report will be discussed at a meeting on 26th January. It cannot ask Surrey residents to fund "something that is completely out of the reach of the council taxpayer." How will the councils fund the massive infrastructure costs of a new runway, on top of all this?
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New European airline association – Airlines for Europe (A4E) – formed to lobby for the industry across Europe
Modelled on "Airlines for America" (A4A) which lobbies/advocates Congress and the Administration on behalf of its member airlines, a similar lobbying alliance has been set up and launched in Europe. It calls itself "Airlines for Europe" (A4E) it so far has Europe’s 5 largest airline groups – Air France KLM, easyJet, IAG, Lufthansa Group, and Ryanair as members, and expects to expand. It wants to "represent the interests of its members when dealing with the EU institutions, international organisations and national governments on European aviation issues." What that means is that it wants to lobby against anything that does not increase competitiveness, lower air fares, or increase airline profits. The particularly want to fight "large scale airport monopolies, high charges, taxation and inefficiencies characterise the aviation supply chain." In particular they want lower costs at airports; lower costs of air traffic control provision, through completion of the Single European Sky; regulation to prevent air traffic control strikes; use of new technology to make efficiency savings; and using SESAR funding to drive compliance with the Single Sky framework; and they want the removal of what they call "unreasonable taxes" on air travel. All this is justified by predictions of economic benefits and ever more jobs .....
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Block of ice from a passing plane crashes through roof of home in Twyford
An elderly couple, in Twyford, Berkshire (under a Heathrow flight path) had the unpleasant experience of a block of ice, which appeared to have fallen from a passing plane, crash through their roof. The two foot long block cracked the ceiling. Luckily it hit the roof in a different part of the house from where the couple were. They said they were lucky not to have been injured. There have been many other incidents over the years of blocks of ice falling - associated with frozen water from aircraft lavatories. Had the ice block fallen onto the road, it could have hit a car or a passer-by. Had it fallen onto a busy road like a motorway, it could have caused a serious accident. The elderly couple had to be assisted by their son in sorting out insurance, and getting the roof repaired. As the insurance company was slow, being a Sunday morning, the local fire brigade helped to patch up the damage and confirm the water and electricity supplies to their house were undamaged. Water (from a lavatory?) from the ice block was dripping through the (now sagging) damaged ceiling. The couple have kept a sample of water, so it can be tested, to identify if it is from a lavatory. Other reports of earlier incidents of items falling from planes can be seen here.
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Patrick McLoughlin hints that EU referendum could delay runway decision, even beyond this summer
One of the many omissions by the Airports Commission, in its analysis of whether a runway should be built, and its recommendation, is the impact of the UK leaving the EU. It was not considered. Clearly, if the UK did leave Europe after a referendum, there would be complicated economic impacts - which would take years to work through. Now the Secretary of State for Transport, Patrick McLoughlin, speaking in an interview on LBC, has said there could indeed be a delay in the government making a decision due to the referendum and the uncertainty about that. Asked when there would be a decision, he replied: "I hope later this year. We have said we would hope to move some way by the summer of this year." And he went on: "There’s lots of other things which are going on in the political spectrum - if there’s a referendum this summer, and the like. But I would hope by the summer of this year we will be able to make progress." There is no mention at all of the issue in the Airports Commission's final report in July 2015 nor in the many supporting documents, nor in its interim report, in December 2013. David Cameron has said the EU referendum will happen by the end of 2017. It may happen as early as June or July 2016.