General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Heathrow hopes to buy off Harmondsworth with about £320,000 per property demolished
Heathrow is to spend hundreds of millions of pounds in an attempt to buy off local opposition to a proposed 3rd runway, with plans to use a massive new fund to compensate homeowners and insulate homes and public buildings against aircraft noise. Heathrow knows noise is a key reason why its runway is politically toxic. It also knows the bad publicity of destroying Harmondsworth and Sipson, and making other areas un-liveable. Now - publicising its runway plan tomorrow - Heathrow is proposing to pay the market price, unblighted, of homes plus 25% and the costs of legal fees, moving costs and stamp duty of buying a new home. For a £250,000 property, homeowners would receive £312,500 compensation, plus £7,500 stamp duty costs and legal fees. [About £320,000 each - for a £250,000 house. ie £304 million for the 950 houses Heathrow would demolish]. This of course does not cover homes nearby, where life would become unpleasant. Heathrow is planning another public consultation in July to decide how the money should be divided up. There might also be more money for noise insulation in areas beyond the usual"noise contour" (57dB) and help for schools.
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Heathrow ads plastering English county names over the globe deemed bad taste (at best)
Heathrow has a new variant of its advert, showing a map of the world, and a slogan implying that Heathrow is essential for travel anywhere outside the UK. The latest variant of the map is odd. In place of the names of countries, Heathrow has replaced them with the names of UK counties, or even things like "M4 corridor" (repeated many times), "The City", Canary Wharf (many times) and the Western Isles, as well as "Devonshire" (sic), Cornwall, Shetland etc etc. Much of central Africa is shown as "South Yorkshire" and much of South America as "Cambridgeshire". India is portrayed as "Clwyd". And so on. This is intended - by the bright ad-man responsible - to indicate "If we want growth in the future, we need to keep Britain firmly on the map." That, it says, means Heathrow. However, there is concern about the colonial over-tones of the advert, and it is being criticised as insensitive and patronising. One commentator writes: "I’m sure all they wanted to do was create a quirky advert with a patriotic theme. Basically, they missed the mark."
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French airports delay the fight against atmospheric NOx pollution from APUs
The yearly report for 2013 by the French Authority for Airport Nuisance Control (ACNUSA) points out the delay of French airports on controlling air pollution. The Authority suggests that French airports improve their air quality ot meet European standards. ACNUSA wants restriction of the use of Auxillary Power Units (APUs) that consume a lot of aviation fuel, and produce a lot of air pollution, while planes are on the ground, as well as being very noise. The Directorate General for Civil Aviation now has 6 months to inform the authorities about its decision on APUs. There are other means by which aircraft ventilation systems etc can be operated on the ground, other than by use of APUs - eg by fixed electrical ground power. Heathrow airport's air quality strategy shows how attempts are being made to cut the amount of NOx produced by APUs and they say this cut the amount of NOx emitted by 35 tonnes between 2008 and 2010.
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Boris spends £90,000 on architects to draw up plans to build over Heathrow site
Boris Johnson , through TfL, is paying 3 architectural firms £90,000 to draw up plans for new homes on the site of Heathrow airport despite there being no plans to demolish it and City Hall having no control over its future. The Mayor wants to replace Heathrow with a new airport in the Thames Estuary though his schemes have neither the support of the UK coalition Government, which controls aviation policy, nor many major airlines. The Airports Commission is currently considering whether a Thames estuary airport is sufficiently viable to be consulted on in the autumn (along with Heathrow and Gatwick options ). Despite the lack of control over aviation policy and without backing for his scheme, Boris has instructed TfLto draw up proposals for increasing runway capacity. Each architect firms will be paid £30,000 for their work , to "provide designs that cover several options for redevelopment of a site that could potentially support 90,000 new jobs and provide homes for 190,000 people.” Up to April 2014 Boris had spent £3 million on promoting his estuary schemes , and that then rose to £5 million. .
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Government wants UK spaceport to take advantage of growing space tourism industry
The UK government is considering developing the necessary legal framework to permit a spaceport to be set up in the UK. They want simpler regulations for new space tourism companies to start operating services in Britain. The government is also increasing its financial help to the industry to £40bn by 2030. The government hopes this will boost national kudos, as space technology requires ultra-high precision engineering, which is a UK strength with a background in defence technology companies. There are claims of jobs. David Willetts, the Science Minister, said: "Space industries already support 95,000 full-time jobs and generate £9.1bn for the economy each year." The UK Space Agency say: "Our vision is to make the UK the most attractive location for space businesses to set up and prosper." A suitable site is now being sought for the launch site, which needs to be where there isn't much civilian airspace, or many people, and near the sea (for safety) - perhaps an under-used or dis-used RAF airfield or a smaller airport, in the West Country, Wales or Scotland. The government wants it operational by 2019 and that Virgin Galactic will fly from it.
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Populus surveys done for Heathrow show only 48% back its expansion (26% back it strongly, 23% oppose it strongly)
To quote Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli; "There are lies, damned lies, and statistics." And so it is when opinion polls are done, and the organisation that commissions the poll wants a particular result out of it. Heathrow often gets Populus to ask people in boroughs near Heathrow what they think. They usually ask similar questions each time. One asks "Taking everything you know into account, do you currently support or oppose expanding Heathrow?" Over all boroughs surveyed, 26% strongly supported this; 22% somewhat supported; 11% somewhat opposed; 23% strongly opposed. See link So 48% support, and 34% oppose, with 18% neither supporting nor opposing. The figures were broadly the same a year earlier (with 46% supporting, but 43% opposing, and 10% neither supporting nor opposing). Heathrow says this is large, and growing, support. It is difficult to interpret the figures, as Populus only publishes a small bit of its results, with no methodology, such as the script of the interviewer, tone of the questions etc. Questions need to be asked about what information is given to people by Populus before they are asked their views.
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Does Lord Bradshaw reflect Lib Dem aviation policy?
The Evening Standard has reported that Lord William Bradshaw, who co-chairs the little-known Liberal Democrat parliamentary committee on transport has said he backs a Gatwick 2nd runway. Lord Bradshaw, who is a former railwayman, has said Gatwick should be allowed a 2nd runway if "it pays for an upgrade of the Brighton-to- London rail line" ... and because it offers "real improvements on the rail journey to London" for the residents of Sussex. Eh? A runway to improve rail services?? The Liberal Democrats have traditionally said they would not back a new runway at Heathrow or Gatwick. Their policy has been somewhat muddled and confusing over the past few years, with talk of a hub, and no net new runways. However, in the past they have been consistent in saying that the UK's carbon targets are at risk if aviation is allowed to expand. They may now be wavering, and no longer to be trusted in their rejection of new runways. Nick Clegg’s party now says it wants to see reassurances about environmental considerations – whether carbon emissions or local air and noise pollution – written into the final Davies report. A much weaker position.
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Flybe to start routes from London City Airport to UK and European destinations
Flybe is to offer more flights from London City Airport - from October - after signing a 5-year deal. There will be routes to and from Edinburgh, Belfast, Dublin, Inverness and Exeter. Flybe hopes these will carry about 500,000 passengers a year. Exeter-based Flybe is seeking to revive its fortunes after losses forced it to shrink its operations, close regional bases and cut hundreds of jobs. It also sold 25 pairs of arrival and departure slots at Gatwick to Easyjet for £20m. In its last set of financial results, Flybe reported pre-tax profits of £13.8m for the 6 months to 30 September, compared with a loss of £1.6m a year earlier. Earlier this year, the airline raised £150m to help fund expansion. Flybe currently operates 171 routes in 16 countries. It will also introduce to services to European ski resorts from London City airport (vital business links??), as well as to destinations in France and northern Spain.
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Gatwick employs high profile PR man Godric Smith (ex Tony Blair, Olympics, BBC) to boost runway campaign
Gatwick airport is spending a lot of money (the figure of £10 million for their PR budget has been mentioned, but this may be an under-estimate) on their lobbying to win over key hearts and minds to their runway plan. Their new campaign, with glossy adverts on the underground, large numbers of public presentations etc "Gatwick Obviously" is spending lavishly. Now Gatwick has announced that they are employing a high profile PR consultant, Godric Smith, to help them in their political battle against Heathrow, for the runway. Godric used to work as spokesman for Tony Blair. He then worked on communications for the Olympics. He was also brought in to the BBC (part time, at £150,000 per year) to sort out their bad publicity issues. Godric Smith has his own consultancy called Incorporated London. Gatwick already has existing relationships for public relations with Fishburn and London Communications Agency. Godric Smith is said to have extensive Whitehall experience and "first-class contacts across the spectrum and a very good understanding of how government works". The airport is also reviewing its digital and consumer agencies.
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Bloomberg says Heathrow claim that 3rd runway would mean lower air fares takes “a flight of imagination”
A report - by Frontier Economics - released by Heathrow last week, as part of its lobbying effort, sought to put a price on the way the airport has chosen to run at almost full capacity. The study makes out that the cost of building the new runway, terminal, changes to the road network, compensating people etc would only add £20 per ticket. Interestingly, Bloomberg Businessweek says "Heathrow officials did not respond to e-mails seeking comment" on these remarkable figures. A footnote buried on page 11 of the Frontier Economics study "notes that calculations for how much fares would fall once a 3rd runway were operational are “complicated by airline price setting,” which is typically focused on “maximizing profitability.” Indeed. " Bloomberg is not convinced that air fares would necessarily fall if a new runway was built. They cite examples of new runways in the USA, where prices have merely risen. They also say the airline alliances would make fare cuts unlikely. Airlines have no interest in cutting fares. Bloomberg says: "selling the project as a fare-lowering exercise takes a flight of imagination."