General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Heathrow 3rd runway being pushed ahead by government, says Goldsmith
Conservative MP Zac Goldsmith - on Twitter - has claimed the government was trying to push through a 3rd runway at Heathrow by hiding behind initial recommendations made by the independent Airports Commission,chaired by Sir Howard Davies, whose interim report is due out next week. Zac has accused George Osborne of "yearning for a China-style government", saying on Twitter: "Osborne has spent public money on a review whose only purpose is to make a 3rd runway decision look like it was reached independently." This comes after "sources close to the inquiry," which will recommend where a new runway for London should be built, claimed Davies would set out 3 options for extra airport capacity in the south-east in the interim report - which is due to be revealed on the morning of 17th December. The 3 are thought to be: 1). A 3rd Heathrow runway. 2). A 3rd and 4th runway at Heathrow. 3). Another runway at both Heathrow and Gatwick. The Guardian says if the initial speculation is correct and Heathrow is the main focus, this is a potential source of embarrassment for the government. The Guardian adds that: " One source said Davies had been asked by No 10 to broaden the shortlist to avert any outcry about Heathrow. But this could not be verified."
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“Planes, ships & taxes: charging for international aviation & maritime emissions” paper by IMF and World Bank experts
A paper entitled "Planes, ships and taxes: charging for international aviation and maritime emissions" has been written by two IMF experts, and one from the World Bank. They consider that aviation and shipping should be taxed, and that the proceeds should go to climate finance. The paper says: “The exclusion from any kind of charge on fuels used in international aviation and maritime is highly anomalous, and interacts with other unique and extraordinarily favourable tax provisions for these sectors to generate significant costs in terms of the environment, government revenue and welfare more broadly defined." And "In the aviation sector in particular, it has been seen that substantial fuel charges would be warranted even in the absence of climate concerns as an imperfect correction for failure to levy VAT or other sales tax on international leisure travel". And "The revenue at stake is also sizeable..... charges could raise (from both industries combined) around $22 billion a year in 2020." And "in aviation, progress has been allowed to be held up by a mass of outdated legal provisions." And "Perhaps the most fundamental difficulty, however, is that it has been left to the sectors themselves to come up with charging schemes. One consequence has been the emergence of principles of doubtful merit: quite why a tax-based approach should be ruled out in aviation, for instance, is entirely unclear, and the general emphasis on earmarking proceeds to the benefit of the industry itself is no less questionable."
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In Toronto expansion of lakeside Billy Bishop airport is strenuously opposed by thousands whose lives it would adversely affect
Pearson airport is the main airport for Toronto. It has several long runways, can take large jets, and had around 35 million passengers in the past year. By contrast, Billy Bishop waterfront airport is tiny, lying along the lake edge close to central Toronto. Its one runway, by the water, is only about 1,200 metres and it had 2 million passengers last year. There are plans to greatly expand Billy Bishop airport, with the runway extended by 200 metres at both ends, to take jets rather than the current turboprops. There are plans for greatly increased numbers of passengers. There has been very vocal opposition from the local group, NoJetsTO, who fear having this enlarged airport will have highly negative impacts on the city, creating noise, air pollution, water pollution, disruption to leisure activities that take place on the lake, traffic congestion, interference with childrens' learning in school, and lowering the quality of life of many living in the area. They say the large jets should stay at Pearson airport, which is well equipped to deal with them. Now the airport's plans, by Porter Airlines, will not be considered by the city until February. Toronto city’s executive committee voted to defer debate of the controversial proposal till February 4 or to a specially called meeting.
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Mayor’s adviser admits ‘Boris airport’ may be dumped by Airports Commission
Boris Johnson's aviation adviser, Daniel Moylan, has admitted that proposals for a new hub airport in the Thames Estuary are “at risk” of being ditched by Sir Howard Davies when he publishes a shortlist of options for additional runway capacity in the South East on 17th December. The mayor has also put forward suggestions to transform Stansted (an area he does not represent in any way) “out of all recognition” into a new four-runway hub and advocated closing Heathrow and transforming it into a new London borough with up to 80,000 new homes. This week a jobs report from three councils in the Heathrow area, Hounslow, Slough and Ealing, will spell out the dangers of shutting Heathrow. The airport claims that the 76,600 people it directly employs would be made redundant overnight if Heathrow was to be replaced by a massive estuary airport, but the 3 councils' report is likely to put the figure far higher. The councils say the closure of Heathrow would have a huge impact on thousands of families.” Curiously and inconsistently, Boris is not bothered about the harm his Stansted plans would inflict on people there, but Mr Moylan talks about Heathrow expansion inflicting misery on a million people, or developing Gatwick into a four-runway hub airport.
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Telegraph article discussing some of the issues for the Airports Commission’s interim statement, due on 17th December
The Airports Commission will make its interim announcement on 17th December, on short term measures, and its short-list of runway options for the long term. The Telegraph writes about this with great enthusiasm at the prospect of aviation capacity equivalent to the size of Gatwick today being added to the south east, (mainly to accommodate more leisure air travel). Some of the points they make are that, predictably, the Airport Operators Association (AOA), say after 2015 any Prime Minister "who rejects the findings of that commission in 2015 would look very weak.” Heathrow expansion would need at least £4 - 6 billion of public funding for the road and rail links. It appears that MAG is lukewarm on the idea of a mega-hub at Stansted. Even Boris' own advisers fear the tide may have turned against any of the Thames Estuary options, which have been fiercely attacked by critics for the associated costs. Stewart Wingate of Gatwick fears the commission could simply choose to drop the most whacky options, and just ask for more work to be done on the most ones - Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and an airport in the Thames Estuary. It is not yet clear if the commission will shortlist a location or a specific option there (they don't yet have enough detail on them to choose). Several groups, including Heathrow hedged their bets by submitting more than one option, which met the various "sift" criteria in different ways
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Thousands delayed after flights delayed and many cancelled due to NATS air traffic control technical problems at Swanwick
Thousands of passengers were left stranded on Saturday after hundreds of flights were grounded at airports following a technical fault at the country’s main air traffic control centre. The problem at Swanwick led to delays to flight across southern England, Ireland and Europe, with Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick, Luton, and ot others badly affected. Problems began when the control centre’s computer systems failed to automatically switch from night to day operations, forcing flight controllers to carry out the procedure manually. Only a few airspace sectors are needed at night, with more in use from early morning, when the increasing number requires a larger number of controllers handling them. The problem was with the telephone system, causing NATS difficulty reconfiguring the sectors. The fault took much of the day to fix, and there were large numbers of flight delays and cancellations, with stories of those affected and inconvenienced. The Swanwick centre opened in January 2002 at a cost of £623 million. NATS said their system is not simply internal telephones, it is the system that controllers use to speak to other ATC agencies both in the UK and Europe and is the biggest system of its kind in Europe. (And there are plans perhaps to add another runway in the southeast, adding the equivalent of another Gatwick to the system?)
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Airports Commission input into National Infrastructure Plan on improvements to surface access to main airports
Sir Howard Davies wrote to George Osborne on 26th November, on surface access to airports. This has influenced the National Infrastructure Plan for 2013, now released. The Airports Commission says that as adding any new runways will take a decade (or decades), in the interim “there is a strong case for attaching a greater strategic priority to transport investments which improve surface access to our airports.” The letter gives specific recommendations on improving surface access at UK main airports. On Heathrow it recommends: "Recognising the importance of encouraging modal shift towards more environmentally sustainable forms of transport at Heathrow, not only for supporting future expansion plans [!?] but also for optimising the airport's operations within its current capacity constraints, the Government should work with Network Rail to undertake a detailed study to find the best option for enhancing rail access into Heathrow from the south. Initial indications are that up to roughly 15% of Heathrow's passengers in the London and South East region could benefit from improved Southern Access." They "remain concerned that the proportion of users (particularly workforce) accessing Heathrow using private cars remains high, with consequent implications for air quality."
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Prospects of the ETS survival weakened by pressure against it from UK, Germany and France
The prospects of carbon emissions from aviation being adequately accounted for by the EU ETS in future look bleak. The Commission has proposed changing the law so aviation emissions that take place outside EU air space are exempt. But Germany, France and the UK want to exempt foreign airlines from the ETS entirely - even for the portions of flights that take place within EU airspace - because anything less would not be politically acceptable to China, India, Russia and the United States. Some MEPs are now lining up against the Commission as well. The Parliament is still likely to be evenly split, when it comes time to vote, between those who oppose any retreat, those who support the Commission's semi-retreat, and those who support the member states' full retreat. The problem with the partial retreat is that foreign airlines (other than those from small developing countries) would still be liable for emissions taking place within EU airspace for flights landing or taking off at EU airports. Even the most stalwart European lawmakers have admitted privately that they could not hope to hold out against the combined pressure of Beijing, Washington and Airbus. The choice now lies between partial retreat and (more likely) full retreat. There will be a vote in January about the draft proposal.
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Airports Commission surface transport improvement plans for Gatwick airport including £180 million station upgrade
Sir Howard Davies (Chairman of the Airports Commission) has written to George Osborne, on the subject of surface access to airports. He says that as adding any new runways will take a decade (or decades), in the interim "there is a strong case for attaching a greater strategic priority to transport investments which improve surface access to our airports." The Airports Commission have recommended improvements for Gatwick including improvements to the train station, which could cost £180 million - "subject to the airport providing an appropriate contribution to the costs of the scheme." It is not currently regarded as being well suited to travellers, especially those with heavy luggage, so better luggage space would need to be added. The Commission says Gatwick is succeeding in getting more long haul routes, and due to capacity constraints at Heathrow, "we believe that the UK's interests to enable passengers to more effectively access Gatwick's increasing connections to new markets, as well as its existing route network." The government says it will provide £50m towards the redevelopment of the station, subject to satisfactory commercial negotiations with Gatwick airport.
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VisitBritain data shows countries with highest spending by inbound tourists: top is USA (13% of the total), France (8%), Germany (7%) and Australia (5%)
Visit Britain has commissioned a report, by Deloitte and Oxford Economics. The report indicates (though Oxford Economics is well known for using extravagant multipliers for their job and economic benefits estimates) that the tourism sector in the UK is worth some £127 billion per year now, and might grow at 3.8% per year. They say it could be worth £257 billion to the UK economy by 2025 (which, of course, is a guess). Their report says that UK income from foreign tourists in 2012 was £24 billion, (giving a net UK tourism deficit from outbound tourists of £13.8 billion). The £24 billion contributed £6.7 billion to HMRC. Data for 2012 show that the countries whose visitors to the UK spent the most were the USA (by far the most at 13% of the total), France (8%), Germany (7%) and Australia (5%). Then Ireland, Spain and Italy at 4% each. By far the largest number of visitors came from France (12% of the total), next Germany at 10% and USA at 9%. Predictably those who have come long haul spend more on their visits than Europeans. In 2012 about 73% of inbound visitors reached the UK by air. In 2012 there were 179,000 visits by Chinese people to the UK (0.6% of all overseas visits). They accounted for 1.7% of all nights in the UK by overseas visitors, and they spent £300m spent, accounting for 1.6% of the total spent whilst in the UK by overseas visitors