General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Runway plans would be stalled by “inevitable” judicial review – causing long delays
The Airports Commission is expected to publish, this week, its initial appraisal of Heathrow and Gatwick’s runway plans, and their consultation on the three options. The Express reports that: "a source close to the Commission .....expects Gatwick and other opponents of airport expansion in general to launch a judicial review, potentially delaying the project." The source also said: "We spend a lot of money on lawyers but we are surprised that we have only had one judicial review so far." Heathrow wants to build a 3rd runway at the cost of £17 billion. Gatwick wants a 2nd runways, costing £7.8 billion. Gatwick says that its project could be built by 2025, and Heathrow that theirs could be by 2030. However, whichever airport the Commission recommends in summer 2015 will face inevitable judicial review - from the rival airport, and many others. Both plans are facing widespread opposition from residents and local politicians. As the Commission has a limited brief, with vital issues such as carbon emissions, noise measurement, taxation of air travel etc decided by others, their recommendations cannot be comprehensive.
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Brussels’ transport chief demands progress on the “Single European Sky” airspace project
The origin of the pressure to concentrate flight paths from UK airports is the European "Single European Sky" (SES) project. It aims to meet future European airspace capacity and safety needs, and make use of airspace more efficient, with the aim of cutting delays and costs for airlines. It would make it possible to fit in as many aircraft as possible in European skies. It would ensure planes travel the most direct route, and not extra distance because of moving between differently controlled blocks of airspace. SES is supported by the Single European Sky ATM Research (SESAR) Programme, which will provide procedures to modernise and optimise the future European ATM network. Part of this process is the increased use of precision navigation, and thus the concentration of flight paths - which has recently proved so controversial in the UK. Now the new European Commissioner for Transport, Violeta Bulc, has called for countries to show more flexibility in integrating air corridors, to implement the SESAR programme. However, getting agreement has been difficult, and air traffic controllers fear streamlining would mean fewer ATM jobs. They also raise safety fears.
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Aviation Environment Federation asks: “Air Passenger Duty – what is it good for?”
A great analysis of APD, by James Lees of AEF, shows aviation as a whole enjoys significant tax exemptions, including paying no VAT or fuel duty. For an industry with a very significant environmental impact – only car travel comes close as a transport mode in emissions per km – this is an anomaly. If UK aviation paid VAT and fuel duty at the same rate as motorists then around £10 billion could be raised for public finances. APD by comparison raises £3 billion annually. When modelling how future UK passenger demand could be restrained to the level compatible with climate targets if a new runway was built, the Airports Commission assumed the cost of emitting a tonne of CO2 increased from £3 today to £600. This would add £43 on to a shorthaul flight compared to £13 for the basic rate of APD (to anywhere in Europe). The industry likes to claim £13 of APD is 'pricing families out of the skies.’ In reality an average family (of 4) holiday in Europe is over £2,000. Of that APD is under 3%. AEF says: "We are yet to see evidence that indicates the 52% of the UK population who don’t take a flight each year view APD as the main financial hurdle."
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Prestwick still set on role as UK spaceport despite Virgin Galactic flight catastrophe
The UK Government has said the Virgin Galactic crash will not hinder efforts to establish Europe's first commercial spaceport in the UK, with a likely base in Scotland. SpaceShipTwo broke apart shortly after being released at altitude on 31st October, providing another setback for Richard Branson's plans. The problem appears to be in the form of rocket used, with nitrous oxide fuel - about which there had been many previous safety warning. One pilot was killed and the other badly injured. Ailing Prestwick airport seems desperate to cling to any available straw, so hence the hope of economic resurgence by becoming a spaceport. Prestwick was shortlisted in July 2014 among 8 potential sites - 6 in Scotland - to locate a launchpad for sub-orbital tourist flights. The plan is ultimately, if anyone wants to risk their lives, for "holidaymakers" to cross the Atlantic from Scotland to New York in around 45 minutes. The latest setback raises more questions about the viability of commercial spaceflight. And that ignores its desirablilty ... as about the highest carbon, unnecessary, activity humans could indulge in.
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Divisions at top of Tory party over 3rd Heathrow runway as Hammond, Johnson and others won’t accept it
The Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond (MP for Runnymede & Weybridge), and the London mayor, Boris Johnson, will refuse to support their own party’s policy on airport expansion at the next election, potentially opening a rift at the top of the Conservative party. They are among a batch of Tories of cabinet or equivalent rank who are expected to rebel against the official party line, which is that no decision on a new runway would be taken before the Airports Commission gives its recommendation in summer 2015. Boris continues to push for an estuary airport. Other leading Tories with south-eastern constituencies who have spoken out against a 3rd Heathrow runway include the Home Secretary, Theresa May (MP for Maidenhead); the international development secretary, Justine Greening (MP for Putney); and the Northern Ireland secretary, Theresa Villiers (MP for Chipping Barnet). The pressure for a new south east runway has come from George Osborne. Gatwick becomes more vulnerable, the more senior Tories oppose a Heathrow runway, though a Gatwick runway makes little economic or aviation sense.
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Santa Monica airport ballot on its future. (Worth watching great spoof video by its opponents)
In California, Santa Monica municipal airport is situated right in the heart of the suburbs, with flight paths right over thousands of homes. There are serious questions about the effects of the airport’s operations on public health and quality of life. In 2015 an operating agreement between the FAA and the City of Santa Monica will expire. There is now to be a public ballot about the airport's future, and whether it should continue its lease as an airport, or if all or part of it could be used for a large park, or for more housing. Many Santa Monica residents and city officials favour closing the airport or substantially reducing its aviation operations. Other residents, private jet owners and flight school operators see it as an economic engine. Opponents of the airport being allowed to continue have produced a good, short spoof video - on YouTube - putting their point across. Worth watching. There are two choices in the ballot, "D" is for Democracy, put forward by the private jet owners, but for complicated reasons, those anti-airport are against this. They want the "LC" is for Local Control option instead - all a bit complicated. But enjoy the video !
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CAA 2013 Air Passenger Survey shows only 23% UK air passengers on business (30% at Heathrow, 14% at Gatwick)
The CAA has now released the data from its 2013 Air Passenger Survey. The survey asked 230,000 departing travellers at 13 of the main UK airports to fill in their surveys. The CAA carries out the annual survey (since 1968) to improve its understanding of the people who use the UK’s airports. This year the airports were: Aberdeen; Birmingham; East Midlands; Edinburgh; Gatwick; Glasgow; Heathrow; Inverness; London City; Luton; Manchester; Newcastle and Stansted. They found that • London City has the highest proportion of passengers travelling for business (55%), with the next highest being Heathrow (30%). • Airports with the highest proportion of leisure passengers were East Midlands (92%), followed by Gatwick and Luton (both 87%). • Heathrow had the highest proportion (37%) of connecting passengers, the same proportion as 2012, Gatwick had 9%. Though the aviation industry PR implies that air travel is vital for links to emerging economies for business, the reality is that only about 23% of air journeys in the UK are for business; about 30% business at Heathrow, and only about 14% at Gatwick (declining).
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Willie Walsh lobbies yet again … regular as clockwork … for cuts in APD … Autumn Budget Statement is on 3rd December
Every year before the Budget in the spring, and the Autumn Budget Statement, the aviation industry has go at trying to get Air Passenger Duty reduced. APD is charged on air travel, in order to partly make up for the fact that aviation pays no VAT and no fuel duty. The industry therefore gets a large annual tax subsidy. However, the airlines would like it cut, in order to sell more flights - many of which are taking Brits out of the UK to spend their holiday money abroad. But that does not stop Willie Walsh proclaiming that APD is "out of control" and saying there have been “relentless rises” in the tax. That is nonsense. APD has risen from £12 to £13 for any flight to Europe (Band A), over the past 5 years or so. The rate for flights in Band B (2,000 to 4,000 miles) has risen from £120 in 2011, to £138 now, and will rise to £142 in April 2015. That is an 18% rise in 4 years. Willie says, in blatant self interest for airline profits, that "APD has snowballed out of control" (what ??) and outrageously that scrapping APD "would boost Britain’s economic growth by 0.5% within a year and lead to the creation of 60,000 new jobs." In reality, in the March 2014 Budget, the Chancellor cut the rate of APD on trips of over 4,000 miles, to only be £142, which means a net loss to the taxpayer of £215 million in 2015.
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United Airlines to launch direct flights between Newcastle and New York – so no need to travel via London
United Airlines will introduce direct flights between Newcastle and Newark airport, New York. There will be 5 per week, from May to September 2015. This will be Newcastle's first scheduled non-stop trans-Atlantic service. The flights will use a Boeing 757-200 aircraft with a total of 169 seats, 16 flat-bed seats in United BusinessFirst and 153 in United Economy, including 45 Economy Plus seats with added extra space. The airport's MD said this would offer the people of Northeast England "easy, convenient travel options not only to New York City but also to destinations throughout the Americas." Presumably it will largely be used for people from the UK taking leisure trips to the USA, but the publicity is that it will also enhance "regional connectivity, growing the regional economy, attracting inward investment and encouraging inbound tourism from North America." So this is one more route that enables people in the north of England to travel, without having to use Heathrow or a southern airport. One one bit of confirmation that a new south east runway is unnecessary. The list of direct long haul flights from regional airports is growing.
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Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen airports call for end to Air Passenger Duty in Scotland
The 3 airports have made a joint submission to the Smith Commission (looking into extra powers for the Scottish Parliament) calling for Air Passenger Duty (APD) to be devolved to Holyrood, and eventually abolished. The airports claim APD is a significant barrier to growth and damaging to tourism, though this ignores the outflow of Scots abroad - facilitated by cheap flights - taking their holiday money to spend elsewhere. Of the £2.9 billion raised by APD in 2013-14, approximately £200m came from Scotland. APD is charged by the Treasury as a means of, partially, compensating for the tax loss caused by aviation paying no VAT and no fuel duty. Scotland is more dependent on flying than the south of the UK, as rail journeys to Europe take much longer. A report by York Aviation for the airports in 2012 suggested that having to pay APD means the country loses (?) some 2 million passengers per year, and could cost the Scottish economy up to £210m in lost tourism spend by 2016. The report is completely silent on the cost of outbound tourism, which is not even mentioned. Airports in the north of England fear APD being dropped in Scotland.