General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Cranfield Airport to ‘cull’ hares (protected species) following crash between a plane and a deer
Cranfield Airport is a small airport, close to Cranfield university in Bedfordshire, which used to be a RAF aerodrome. It is operated by Cranfield University. It deals with helicopters, training flights, and business and private jets. Not commercial airlines. It has a concrete runway of 1799 metres. Now after a crash between a light aircraft and a muntjac deer on December 16 2013, the airport has decided to cull wildlife. This cull threatens the hares that use the surrounding area - hares are a nationally protected species, of which Defra is working to increase the population in its biodiversity action plan. The local paper reports that "On Wednesday bosses at Cranfield University plan to undertake a cull of hares at the Airport in which four qualified personnel carrying firearms will seek out the animals." Wildlife groups say the proposed cull could seriously damage the numbers of hares in Bedfordshire, with the species already having become under threat nationally since the Ground Game Act 1880 gave landowners the right to kill rabbits and hares on their land. The airport is clearing the area of scrub vegetation to the south of the site, including a 'controlled cull of the excessive hare and rabbit population' within that area. So much for universities setting an intellectual example of good practice on biodiversity.
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Local survey says 90% would use Doncaster Robin Hood airport if more destinations were offered
The small airports in the vicinity of Manchester fear they are losing out, as more passengers prefer to fly from Manchester. The local press in Yorkshire reports that Manchester continues to be the first choice airport for most travellers from South Yorkshire, followed by East Midlands airport. More than 66% of South Yorkshire flyers say they use Manchester “often” or “very often” while 25% said the same of East Midlands, while around 15% used Heathrow on a similar basis. Just one in 14 said they used Robin Hood often or very often – a similar proportion to those using Leeds Bradford and fewer than use Stansted or Liverpool John Lennon Airports. However, 90% said they would like to use Robin Hood if it had flights to a wider range of destinations.Little regional airports hope travellers would prefer them to larger airports, particularly to destinations in Europe – because that cuts the time they spend in the airport. Only 10% were ‘satisfied’ or ‘very satisfied’ with the range of destinations served by Robin Hood airport. Around 30% said the problem was lack of accessibility and connectivity with poor public transport and an inadequate bus service. Road access improvements from the M18 are planned.
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Wandsworth Council vows to fight Heathrow night flight threat
Wandsworth Council says it has vowed to fight plans by the Airports Commission to increase the number of night flights over London. The Government’s second stage consultation on a new night flight regime proposes no significant changes to the existing rules despite new evidence on the health and social impacts of sleep deprivation caused by aircraft noise. The consultation documents say the Airports Commission will make recommendations for night flights in its final report in 2015. Flightpath communities in Battersea and Putney already suffer an average 16 early morning arrivals before 6am. Theycomplain bitterly about these pre 6am flights (classified as night flights) and suffer from sleep deprivation and fatigue which affects their work and undermines their quality of life. The DfT's own impact assessments link prolonged exposure to night flights to serious health problems including cardiovascular disease, strokes and hypertension. The Commission's first report uses the outdated ‘57 decibel’ Leq metric to define aircraft noise impacts. That has infuriated noise campaigners who claim it grossly underestimates a flightpath noise footprint, and does not properly represent the noise experienced. The Commission will now look at some more effective metrics
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Stewart Wingate tells Scottish business leaders a 2nd Gatwick runway would be better for Scottish travellers
Gatwick airport is working hard on its PR to win support for its runway bid. It has recruited a number of agencies to help with this, and is reputed to be spending some £10 million on its public relations. It is lobbying London councils that oppose expansion at Heathrow, on the principle that "my enemy's enemy is my friend." Now Stewart Wingate has told a meeting of business people in Scotland that expanding Gatwick could be better for the Scottish economy than expanding Heathrow. He is announcing a new study into airport expansion and Scottish connectivity, commissioned through Northpoint Aviation, that considers levels of access and demand today, and the impact of expanding Gatwick on Scotland. Gatwick plans to return to Scotland in due course, with more details and to lobby for support. Stuart Patrick, chief executive of Glasgow Chamber of Commerce, said: “We are working hard to ensure that capacity constraints in the South-east don't limit our future ability to access such vital national and international markets, and in the short-term this remains an issue." Spending more on PR, Gatwick's media relations manager, Heather Griffiths, said consumer perceptions were an "important strand" in the broader comms effort on their runway bid.
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Campaigners target airport investors to warn them off risky investment in politically undeliverable 3rd Heathrow runway
Heathrow's investors are to be targeted as part of a campaign by residents, MPs and local authorities who argue a 3rd runway in west London will be “politically undeliverable”. Campaigners will highlight the potential risk to shareholders of spending millions of pounds developing detailed plans for a new runway, when they are likely to face the same level of fierce and determined opposition that led to a previous scheme being ditched in 2010. MPs, local authorities and anti-Heathrow campaigners have met to draw up a plan of attack. These include Zac Goldsmith MP, John McDonnell MP, representatives of Richmond, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Wandsworth councils and HACAN. The main shareholders at Heathrow now are Spanish infrastructure group Ferrovial (25%), Qatar Holding LLC (20.00%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (13.29%), the Government of Singapore Investment Corporation (11.88%), Alinda Capital Partners (11.18%), China Investment Corporation (10%) and Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) (8.65%). The 3rd runway is also strongly opposed by Boris Johnson. Daniel Moylan, the Mayor's chief aviation adviser, said: “The Mayor shares HACAN’s view that the expansion of Heathrow is neither acceptable nor politically deliverable.” A report by KPMG for the Airports Commission indicated the funding problems for either a new Heathrow, or a Gatwick, runway.
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Taxpayers to cover Heathrow’s £160 million contribution to Crossrail – CAA claims Heathrow doesn’t need more passengers coming by rail
Plans for the £14.8 billion Crossrail line across London originally envisaged - in 2008 - a £230 million contribution from Heathrow, to reflect the benefit it is expected to gain from the link to central London, Maidenhead, and Brentwood. But now it emerges that the taxpayer must cover a £160 million shortfall, which Heathrow will now not pay. Now Heathrow will only pay £70 million. [Heathrow is pushing hard for a 3rd runway - surely if it got that, it would need all the rail passengers from Crossrail that it can get]. The CAA has said that with the airport already running at or near capacity, (it is not at capacity for terminal space, only runway space) Crossrail would deliver no net benefit in terms of additional passengers. After the CAA set aside a provisional pot of £100 million to pay towards Crossrail, the DfT lowered its proposal to £137 million, and now down to £70 million. The National Audit Office said the shortfall means that the DfT’s contribution to the project will rise from £4.8 billion to almost £5 billion; but this remains inside the £5.2 billion set aside in case it failed to secure sufficient funding from private sources. Crossrail is now half built and is due to open by December 2019. It will run from Maidenhead, via Heathrow, out to Abbey Wood and Shenfield in the east.
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Gatwick new runway would increase likelihood of more local flooding along River Mole
A paper has been prepared for GACC by the distinguished naturalist and author Jeremy Early. It shows why Gatwick - and towns downstream - are liable to flood. And that the situation would be made worse by the construction of a new runway and associated infrastructure. Jeremy points out that Gatwick has areas of higher land in its vicinity, which increase the amount of rainfall that has to be drained away. In addition the huge amount of development locally consisting of impermeable surfaces, makes the flooding in several parts of Crawley, other local villages, and at Gatwick Airport understandable. Jeremy points out that Crawley is built on a floodplain and the Environment Agency has said: ‘The decision to site Gatwick Airport across 3 watercourses means that it is vulnerable to flooding from all 3 watercourses as well as local drainage. Run-off from main airfield paving flows by gravity to a storage pond and is then discharged by pumps directly to the River Mole." They consider the chance of the North Terminal flooding again to be high (about 8% chance). The report considers it misguided to plan to use 900 hectares of greenfield site to create a 2nd runway involving a vast quantity of impermeable surfaces, not to mention associated infrastructure, roads, homes etc.
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WWF’s “One in Five” challenge has cut corporate flights by their participating firms by 38% over 3 years
New results from WWF’s "One in Five Challenge", a programme to help organisations cut 20% of flights within 5 years in favour of lower-carbon ways of staying connected, show that some of the UK’s leading companies have cut flights by 38% and flight expenditure by 42% over a 3-year period, saving them over £2 million and over 3,000 tonnes of carbon. Organisations that have achieved the One in Five Challenge, include BskyB, BT, Capgemini, Lloyds TSB, Microsoft UK, the Scottish Government, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) and Vodafone. The Challenge has helped companies to make significant inroads into cutting their costs and carbon from business travel and to change their business travel behaviour in favour of alternatives such as rail and video-conferencing. These results, together with other WWF-UK analysis which shows a significant, long-term decline in business flying in the UK, point to a permanent change in meeting and travel practices, questioning the business case for UK airport expansion. Having developed the One in Five Challenge and run it successfully for over 4 years, WWF is handing "One in Five" to Global Action Plan (GAP), the UK’s leading environmental behaviour change charity helping business to reduce environmental impact.
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More problems for aviation in the EU ETS as France, UK and Germany will not enforce sanctions for non- compliance
German centre-right MEP Peter Liese, the European Parliament’s environment committee rapporteur, wants the European Parliament to refuse to ratify proposed changes to the law on the ETS unless member states start enforcing the existing law. He is supported in this by both the environmental groups, who want better control of aviation carbon emissions, and from a very different perspective, the European Low Fare Airlines Association, which fears that if non-EU airlines are not forced to pay for carbon permits, while EU airlines are, they will be at a competitive disadvantage. Since the freeze ("stop the clock") ended in October, the Commission proposed to change the legislation so that only the portions of flights taking place within EU airspace would be charged. But France, Germany and the UK are pushing to exempt until 2016 all emissions from any flight that enters or leaves EU airspace. At present the EU is not charging foreign airlines for the flights they operate within EU airspace. These flights are mostly American and Chinese. Liese wants the Parliament to withhold its backing until the regulators start punishing the foreign airlines for not paying their ETS charges. And to do it before May - Germany and France don't want to do this.
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Branson’s plans for “space travel” progress – for the privileged mega-rich
The plan to take tourists up on joy-rides virtually into space must be one of the most environmentally irresponsible around. Perhaps indicative of a society that has lost sight of the concept of living within environmental limits, using resources wisely, and not flaunting excessive wealth. But space travel is what Branson plans. It is reported that Virgin's "Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo," VSS Enterprise, has just completed its third test flight. It has now reached the altitude of 13.5 miles or 71,000ft, but in order to be considered to be at the edge of the earth's atmosphere, it needs to get up to 62 miles or 328,084ft above the earth (called the Kármán line). These trips planned by Richard Branson are purely for "space tourists" and only those with exceptional wealth would be able to afford them, so it will be rich celebrities and rich business people only. The price is likely to be around £152,000 for a return ticket to the edge of space. Conspicuous consumption gone mad. This is a Branson PR statement: “2014 will be the year when we will finally put our beautiful spaceship in her natural environment of space.” They hope to reach the Kármán line this spring, and begin commercial operations later in 2014.