General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Large purchases of planes by middle eastern airlines heralds change in Heathrow-type hub model
Emirates ordered 150 Boeing 777Xs at the 5-day Dubai air show, worth about $76bn [£46bn]. In total Emirates bought $99 billion-worth, and the total value of orders for planes bought was over $200bn - much by middle east airlines, like Qatar Airways and Etihad of Abu Dhabi. The middle east airlines are redrawing the global aviation map, enabling Gulf carriers to move traffic from hubs like Heathrow, Frankfurt and Singapore. They will be doing more long haul routes in future, not merely medium haul, and competing more with established long haul European airlines like BA, Lufthansa and Air France. An aviation analyst said the hub-spoke model, where long-haul passengers transfer to a short flight to reach their destination, would come under increasing threat. Hub traffic (the Heathrow model) with one long-haul and one short-haul flight is incredibly wasteful. Two medium-haul flights into a hub is more efficient. A 16-hour flight broken up into two 8-hour flights is quite efficient- more so than a huge plane carrying enough fuel for a very long flight. That suits a middle eastern hub airport.
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Ways to improve airport capacity without extra runways – from NATS
NATS is the organisation that manages air traffic and airspace within the UK. Without efficient and safe use of airspace for more flights, there could be no airport capacity expansion. A blog by a NATS manager says there are many ways to get more air traffic onto the existing runways. He writes that NATS has developed tools and analysis methods that allow them to identify where growth is being constrained. Better co-ordination and sharing of information across an airport can help improve efficiency, and getting the maximum use from one runway - which could be as effective as sub-optimal use of several. He hints at mixed mode at Heathrow, using both runways for both take-offs and landings, rather than the current "runway alternation" by which Londoners get half a day of respite, when the runways switch use at 3pm. With a mix of larger and smaller planes, with the problem of air turbulence from the larger ones, it is important to optimise the landing sequence for aircraft arriving at busy capacity constrained airports to maintain capacity and throughput. Optimal planning reduces the time aircraft take from starting up their engines, to take-off.
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Qatar Airways new service between Edinburgh and Doha – and others – avoiding need for connecting flights
A new non-stop flight between Edinburgh Airport and Doha in Qatar is to be launched next year. It will be operated x5 per week by Qatar Airways, which serves more than 100 international destinations from Doha. The 787 Dreamliner aircraft will fly all year round on the route, providing connections to Australian hubs in Perth and Melbourne. It will be the Dreamliner's first scheduled service from Scotland. Officials at Edinburgh Airport have long wanted to attract a major Middle Eastern carrier to allow them to compete with Glasgow, which provides a twice daily Emirates service to Dubai. There will also be a US Airways route linking Edinburgh with Philadelphia. Scotland's Transport Minister Keith Brown hailed the move as "excellent news" for the aviation sector and said the new route was "yet more evidence of the strong bonds we are building with Qatar. The direct flights remove the need to use Heathrow for hub connections. In 2014 Scotland has the Commonwealth Games, and the Ryder Cup and wants to get in more visitors to these, as well as other business and tourists.
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SSE challenges Airports Commission at the High Court on “apparent bias” due to involvement of Geoff Muirhead
Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE) has launched a High Court bid to force the Airports Commission to revise its work on the future of aviation expansion in the UK. SSE's case, asking that the Airports Commission should re-determine its so-called “sift criteria” for assessing growth options, was heard by Mrs Justice Patterson. SSE claims that the sift criteria process was infected by apparent bias because Geoff Muirhead, then still a member of the Commission, had worked as Chief Executive for - and continued to work for - MAG. The sift criteria will ultimately guide the Commission in its final decision on where any new runways in the UK should be built. SSE's barrister, Paul Stinchcombe QC, argued that Mr Muirhead's resignation was too late to save the sift criteria proceedings and that his involvement had tainted and was continuing to taint the activities and decisions of the commission by reason of apparent bias. The DfT said "there is no evidence whatsoever of bias and the Airports Commission is content that decisions taken to date are robust." The Commission said its processes to date were "appropriate and robust". Mrs Justice Patterson said she will make a decision on the matter in writing at a later date.
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India – people resist airport land grabs, evictions and conversion of their land from agricultural to industrial use
Rose Bridger, writing in the Ecologist, says rural communities all over India are battling against a land grab of epic proportions for airport building. There is currently a boom in domestic aviation in India, and there is a particular problem of rural land-take in Kerala. Large tracts of farmland and wildlife habitats are being handed over to corporations for high carbon industries such as mines, steel plants, manufacturing, agribusiness plantations, roads, dams, oil refineries, power plants and logistics parks as well as airports. The requisite road network and associated land developments often extend the airport footprint over a far wider area. Supposedly a new airport would bring in more tourists. But often it would destroy much of what is attractive to visitors. The land grab has been met by tumultuous protests by people defending their land and livelihoods. Compensation is often negligible, subject to lengthy delays, or even non-existent. Rehabilitation programmes are similarly inadequate. All too often, those evicted are left destitute - granted neither new plots of land and housing comparable to what they have lost, nor employment at the project that displaced them.
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Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic,Lufthansa and Tui sell their 21% stake in NATS to UK pension fund
Thomas Cook, Virgin Atlantic, TUI Travel and Lufthansa have agreed to sell most of their stakes in NATS to Britain's biggest pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). USS will pay £152m for 49.9% of the "Airline Group", which owns 41.9% of NATS. The deal indirectly gives USS a 21% stake in Nats, which handles more than 6,000 flights a day. Thomas Cook and TUI each issued statements to the London Stock Exchange saying they sold their stakes for £38m and that Nats was not a core part of their operations. BA, easyJet and the Monarch Airlines retirement plan, the other owners of the Airline Group, will keep their stakes. A spokesman for the Airline Group said BA and easyJet were the two companies most reliant on Nats so they kept their stakes to maintain their influence over operations. Nats is controlled by the government, which has a 49% stake plus a special share. The government had intended to sell half its stake but ministers changed their minds when faced with a potential outcry (Feb 2011) over letting air traffic control out of public hands.
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European Commission approves state aid for the construction of French airport at Notre-Dame-des-Landes
There are plans for a new airport for Nantes, in western France, to be built some 12 miles to the north of the town, at Notre Dame des Landes. The new airport has been fiercely opposed. The proponents of the new airport claim the existing one is now full, with over 3.5 million passengers, and planes over-fly Nantes. The European Commission has decided that it is suitable to give a public subsidy of €150 million to the company to develop the new airport, Société Aéroports du Grand Ouest. The EC says this is compatible with the EU rules on State aid, and they say it will help improve regional connectivity and links with the rest of the EU, without unduly distorting competition in the internal market. This appears to be a very bad decision on the use of public money. The Commission seems to have believed everything it has been told by the authorities who want to build the airport. There is, in reality, no congestion at the existing airport and the economic benefits were hotly challenged in a report by CE Delft, commissioned by the local campaign. It is also worrying that the Commission is agreeing to State Aid for an airport in what is generally quite a wealthy area.
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Cameron failed to deliver on promise of ‘greenest government ever’ and environmental commitments, say NGOs
In a report called "Nature Check 2013" the consortium of 41 environmental NGOs has set out a range of environmental commitments made by this government, and their progress on them. The Government has failed to deliver on more than a third of the pledges it made to improve the natural environment and has made “good progress” on less than a fifth. The report shows, comparing progress over the past 3 years, that the Coalition’s environmental record had “steadily worsened” during its time in office and found that 79% of the population believe it has not lived up to its pledge to be the “greenest government ever”. Dr Elaine King, director of the consortium said: “We’re told an economy in crisis is a higher priority than nature in crisis. Yet the Government is missing a huge opportunity – a healthy environment helps the economy and enhances people’s health and wellbeing." On the pledge "We will maintain the Green Belt, Sites of Special Scientific Interest and other environmental protections, and create a new designation – similar to SSSIs"...they are failing.They are making only moderate progress on two others relating to the planning system.
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“Let Britain Fly” taken to task for exaggerating and wrongly claiming London’s economy is being damaged by any lack of runway capacity
In a blog, John Stewart pours some cold water on the infant "Let Britain Fly" campaign launched today. Its proud parent, London First, surrounded by a glittering array of big names from the business world, overdid the hyperbole. Baroness Jo Valentine, chief executive of London First, said that it was not acceptable for politicians “to dither” over new runways “and let our economy wither.” She even went on to ask somewhat over-dramatically, “Do we really want to become an also-ran in the global race?” Baroness Valentine must know this is exaggeration, even scaremongering. Whatever the pros and cons of expansion in the longer term, the facts are clear: there is no rush for a decision to be taken. The DfT has said that there is enough spare runway capacity in London and the South East until nearly 2030. And survey after survey shows that London remains the top city for business in Europe because of its unparalleled air connections to the rest of the world. Let Britain Fly – and London First – will lose credibility if they continue to exaggerate the urgency of the need for expansion. Giving the impression that London’s economy is in crisis because of a lack of runways is simply not true.
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Campaign – ‘Let Britain Fly’ – launched by London First, calls for urgent action to increase airport capacity
On 10th October, business lobby group London First announced it would be launching a new campaign called "Let Britain Fly". It has now had its blast of publicity, with a splurge of media coverage. The campaign will cost £250,000 and London First is seeking £25,000 each from businesses, trade unions and London boroughs to fund it. They have got a number of Britain’s large companies, including Aberdeen Asset Management, Land Securities, Lloyds Banking Group, Next, Associated British Foods, WPP and many others to sign up. They want a new runway built somewhere, complaing the UK has not built a new one in the south east for 70 years. They want politicians of all parties to agree on the principle that airport capacity must be expanded in the South East "to ensure Britain remains competitive". They want there to be no delays in getting a new runway built. The campaign stems from the questionable belief that airport capacity constraints threaten “to hamper the UK’s success as a global business centre and at the same time the ability to forge a lasting economic recovery”.