General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Margaret Hodge: Gatwick runway appeal ‘is hypocritical when it avoids corporation tax’
Gatwick has been accused of “hypocrisy” for avoiding corporation tax while campaigning to build a new runway, allegedly for the benefit of the UK economy. Margaret Hodge, head of Parliament's Public Accounts Committee, said the airport should pay its “fair share” if it wants its runway campaign to be credible. She also criticised Heathrow which has not paid corporation tax for several years. But she particularly criticised Gatwick. Its Guernsey-based parent company Ivy Mid Co LP has invested in a £437 million “Eurobond” which charges the airport 12% interest, thus avoiding tax. Gatwick says this sort of bond is often used by other infrastructure companies. Companies in the UK should pay 21% corporation tax on profits, but by spending £1 billion on upgrading the airport, Gatwick has made no profit recently. Despite pre-tax loses in recent years, it has paid dividends to its overseas shareholders of £436 million. Heathrow has also avoided profits by investing in new buildings etc. Mrs Hodge said the companies “made a fortune” from their UK activities, which relied on public services, adding: “For them to pretend they are only in it for the benefit of the UK economy is a touch hypocritical.”
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Tiles ripped off roof in Birmingham by plane vortex – fortunately nobody injured
Birmingham Airport has had a Vortex Protection Scheme in place for many years. As with many other airports, the problem of damage to roofs by vortices created by over-flying planes is well known. In some air conditions, swirling masses of air descend from planes, like a very small tornado, and can rip off loose tiles. So far nobody has been badly injured by this. Airports are keen to get the damage fixed as fast as possible, to avoid danger and bad publicity. Predicting where vortex damage is likely is difficult. Now in Birmingham a resident has had a number of tiles (around 12 perhaps) dislodged from the roof of her council house, falling onto the patio below. She commented that it was lucky that she was not sitting outside, nor that any children were playing there. An airport spokeswoman said officials were “looking into the incident” after being informed. There have been many such incidents, with cases in Germany near Frankfurt airport early in 2013, a case in March 2013 in Old Windsor, and several incidents at Belfast City Airport in 2010.
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Kevin Anderson blog on decisions of academics and climate community about personal travel
In a blog in June 2014, Professor Kevin Anderson writes about the need for people to consider their own behaviour in relation to flying. He is personally highly conscious of his own energy use. He looks in particular at academics and those in the climate change community, and their justification for the use of high carbon travel. These are some quotes: "Amongst academics, NGOs, green-business gurus and climate change policy makers, there is little collective sense of either the urgency of change needed or of our being complicit in the grim situation we now face." And on the desire to fly to save time to spend with our families: "When we’re dead and buried our children will likely still be here dealing with the legacy of our inaction today; do we discount their futures at such a rate as to always favour those family activities that we can join in with?" And "Surely if humankind is to respond to the unprecedented challenges posed by soaring emissions, we, as a community, should be a catalyst for change – behaving as if we believe in our own research, campaign objectives etc. – rather than simply acting as a bellwether of society’s complacency."
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How an uneven transport market is killing off green options – while the highest CO2 forms are the cheapest
An interesting blog by a PhD student, researching behaviour change and air travel, looks at the problem of unfair competition between low carbon forms of transport - such as rail - with high carbon flying. Depressingly, many overnight sleeper trains across Europe are now being cut. Due to the tax exemptions of aviation, paying no VAT and no fuel duty, the market for air travel is rigged. This makes low-carbon travel choices uncompetitive and eventually unprofitable, so they are ended. T&E has estimated the industry's tax exemptions cost EU governments around €10 billion. It is also the case that those who travel the most, the furthest, or fly first/business class are the most subsidized. Because of the tax breaks and subsidies, as well as significant economies of scale enabled by the rapid growth of low cost carriers, air fares have become, on average, 1.3 % cheaper every year since 1979 – a third cheaper in real terms than they were 20 years ago. In stark contrast, rail fares have risen, on average, by 1.2% since 1995. Transport choices are being reduced, and we risk being on a path to flight dependency, with the lower emissions types being priced out of competition.
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European Commission scraps plan to label tar sands as polluting – it causes at least 20% more CO2 emissions in its production
The European Commission has proposed scrapping a mandatory requirement to label tar sands oil as highly polluting, after years of industry opposition. The new proposal abandons one obstacle to Canada shipping crude from tar sands to Europe, and will draw strong criticism from environmental campaigners and Green politicians. To extract the oil the tar sands have to be blasted with steam, using large amounts of gas and water. In 2011, the EU agreed that tar sands should be given a carbon value 20% higher than for conventional oil. However, member states could not agree, and the Commission has been reconsidering the proposal ever since. The new proposal released only requires refiners to report an average of the feedstock used. They do not have to single out tar sands. It retains, however, a method for calculating the carbon intensity of different fuel types over their lifecycle. Some of this very high carbon oil is now making its way to Europe, and some will be turned into jet fuel. This will further increase the emissions from aviation, if the fuel used has required high carbon emissions in its production.
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NGOs set out policy proposals on UK aviation, with 6 tests, for all party manifestos
A number of the main environmental NGOs in the UK have together published their joint policy proposals for sustainable future aviation strategy for the UK. The NGOs welcome the increased recognition of the need to keep aviation expansion within UK carbon targets. However, there is concern that a new runway would represent locking into carbon-intensive infrastructure at a time when the UK urgently needs to reduce emissions. It is critically important that climate change targets continue to be respected in the context of aviation expansion. A new south east runway would mean caps on expansion of regional airports, and tightening of carbon budgets for emissions elsewhere in the economy. The document sets out six key tests for a new runway or airport expansion, relating to climate change, sustainability, society, and wildlife. The NGOs would oppose airport expansion or the construction of any new runways unless any future government ensures their six tests are passed, with the necessary policies. They are calling on all political parties to include meeting these tests in their manifestos.
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New AEF Policy Briefing setting out how a new south east runway is not compatible with UK climate policy
The Aviation Environment Federation (AEF), a policy-focused UK NGO, is producing a series of policy briefings, to inform the airport expansion/runway debate. The issue remains whether to build a new runway, not merely where. AEF's new briefing "AIRPORT EXPANSION AND CLIMATE CHANGE - Is a new runway compatible with climate policy?" is a concise, easy to read, document setting out the facts very clearly. A key point is that a new runway would have very significant climate implications that fall outside the remit of the Airports Commission to address. AEF explains how both the Committee on Climate Change and Airports Commission have stated that demand for flights in the UK will have to be restricted to prevent CO2 emissions from the aviation sector overshooting the level consistent with the Climate Change Act. However, neither has identified how this can be achieved if a new runway is built, leaving a policy gap. That gap would result in the UK’s climate targets being compromised. The options are to dramatically increase the cost of flying (by the UK acting alone), restrict capacity available at regional and other South East airports to below today’s levels - or better and more acceptable - make optimum use of existing airport capacity.
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Small regional airports band together to promote the advantages of regional airports and lobby government for support
In response to the difficulties that small regional airports have faced, a number of them are joining together to form the Regional and Business Airport Group. Its members include Exeter, Norwich, Southend, Newquay, Durham and Blackpool. They hope to promote the advantages of regional airports, make the case for regional airports to government, and get more support. They say their airports help to rebalance the economy, and serve less well-connected regions - but they will need financial help. They want a cut in their level of Air Passenger Duty, and less regulation. Unless a buyer is found for Blackpool airport by 15th October, it will have to close. Manston, Bristol Filton, and Plymouth City airport have closed. Others have been taken over by councils or sold for token sums of money. The small airports with under one million passengers per year had much larger drops in numbers during the recession, from 2008, than larger airports. One analyst considers a small airport needs at least half a million annual passengers, to be viable. The small airports suffer from low cost airlines driving down fees. The FT says over 40% of European airports do not make a profit.
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LibDem conference votes against new runways in south east, keeping existing policy
LibDems have voted against an amendment, by Lorely Burt (Solihull) and Stephen Gilbert (St Austell and Newquay), to reverse Lib Dem policy of no new net runways. Party policy remains opposed to a new SE runway. The amendment proposed continuing opposition to Heathrow, but backing Gatwick expansion (Gatwick helped with conference expenses - and lobbied relentlessly). It was supported by Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander, Vince Cable, Ed Davey and Susan Kramer. However, no cabinet minister spoke in favour of it during the debate. Ed Davey and others made rather poorly informed comments about aviation becoming "cleaner and quieter" in future, meaning a new runway could be built without breaching environmental limits. "According to one party source, Clegg was also worried about going through an election campaign saying the Lib Dems would block a new runway, only for it to be agreed by parliament soon after the election." LibDems will not back a new runway if in coalition after 2015. Julian Huppert played a central role in defeating the amendment. Caroline Pidgeon spoke strongly against it, and tweeted that "softening on airports is bad for environment, for London and for the LibDems' credibility." What this does to voters' faith in LibDems not selling out to big business, at the expense of the environment, in future is not clear.
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Virgin scraps its unsuccessful, loss-making “Little Red” domestic services from 2015
Virgin Atlantic has announced plans to scrap its heavily loss-making domestic airline, Little Red, after just over 18 months. It has struggled to fill seats on its services linking Heathrow with Edinburgh, Aberdeen and Manchester, and finally admitted defeat after weeks of speculation. Virgin’s daily services to Manchester will end in March 2015, while the Scottish services will cease next September 2015. Little Red, which was operated by Aer Lingus for Virgin on a “wet lease”, ie with the Irish airline’s planes and crew in Virgin colours, could never make money. It was started in March 2013 after competition authorities made BA relinquish Heathrow slots for domestic flying, in the wake of BA’s takeover of bmi. Its aim was to feed in passengers from the regions, to make Virgin's long haul Heathrow flights more profitable. However, instead most passengers were just on point-to-point flights. Richard Branson complains that the slots they had for Little Red were inadequate. Its load factor was around 30 - 35%, which was about the lowest in the whole industry. Virgin Atlantic has made losses for years, requiring cuts in flights to (business?) destinations to focus on the profitable tourist ones to North America.