General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Opposition in Kerala in south west India to building of a new airport at Aranmula
In Kerala, in the south west of India, there are plans for a private company to build a large new airport, for low cost airlines, at Aranmula. The site is within 100 km of two international airports - at Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. These airports bring in tourists to Kerala, and it is intended that it brings in pilgrims to a nearby site. The land at Aranmula is greenfield, and there are plans to take at least 350 acres, and perhaps much more for an aerotropolis. Local people fear it could destroy paddy land and damage the region’s water source. They also fear it could harm the town’s ‘heritage’ tag and damage the structure of a temple located just a few hundred metres from the project site. There are concerns that the airport would not be profitable, due to its two neighbours, which are not full. The airport has aroused intense opposition over the past two years, and there have been many protests. The opponents have a Facebook site, and have been feeling they are alone in their fight, being unaware of the extent of other airport opposition elsewhere in the world. The Indian government recently announced it proposes to build 17 new airports in 11 states.
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Give Nimbys an incentive to back infrastructure projects, says new report by consultants
A new report called "Building Blocks: How Britain Can Get Infrastructure Right" produced by the Management Consultancies Association puts forward recommendations on how the UK should build more infrastructure. Such as airports. One of their proposals is that "Nimbys" (people who, for whatever reason, don't want new building or infrastructure in their area) would have less to protest about if local communities were given a cut of increased business rates ensuing from infrastructure projects. They want to change the situation at Heathrow with opposition to a third runway, or the HS2 rail link. They hope that giving a share of tax proceeds to the people most directly affected would stop them opposing schemes. Head of transport at Arup, said: “Imagine how the relationships between the local authorities around Heathrow Airport and the debate over a third runway would have played out if the tens of million in business rates that the airport pays every year had gone directly to them.”
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Some details of how much European governments bail out failing national airlines
There is currently a consultation under way, on EU guidance on state aid to airports and airlines. This consultation ends on 25th September, unless it is extended. A paper by Rose Bridger, in July, sets out details of the extent of state aid to failing airlines across Europe. There are truly remarkable sums involved. The EU regards bail outs for failing airlines as restructuring aid, rather than merely aid for infrastructure or new route development. Some of the cases that Rose has located information on are for national flag carrier airlines. For example, the Hungarian national airline, Malev, received well over €300 million; Scandinavian airline SAS received a €400 million credit facility from three governments; Latvian airline Air Baltic got at least €100 million in share capital; Air Malta got well over €180 million over several years; Polish LOT airlines has had at least €100 million, and likewise for Estonia Air and Czech airlines. Support for airlines brings a disproportionate benefit to wealthier citizens, who fly more. Continued bailouts to airlines exacerbates the financial instability caused by excessive debt.
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Aviation lobby form new pressure group, “Runways UK” with large conference in January
The aviation industry must be a bit alarmed about its prospects of getting another runway, or more than one, in the south east of England. It has formed a new lobbying organisation, this one being called Runways UK, in order to fight its case and put pressure on government and political parties to get building, after 2015. They plan to hold a large conference ("an entirely impartial event") in London, on 16th January 2014, which they are calling the inaugural Runways UK. This will be shortly after the Airports Commission makes its interim report, in December, on whether new runway capacity is actually needed, and which schemes to short list for further detailed consideration. The conference will be very pricey, if the cost of sponsoring part of it is anything to go by. Tickets are not yet on sale. They intend to hold a similar conference annually. The lobby group says of its advisory board that it "comprises a combination of luminaries, appropriate institutions and associations and commercial partners2 including its Chair, Baroness Brenda Dean (trade unionist), Baroness Jo Valentine, Chief Executive of London First, and Michèle Dix, Managing Director of Planning at TfL. Plus many aviation lobby executives.
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Consultation on rules for European Commission state aid to airports and airlines
Under the European Commission, state aid is granted to various sectors of the economy. However, a key issue is the impact it has on distorting the market, and giving an unfair advantage to those companies or organisations receiving it. Airports and airlines are one sector that receives large amounts of state aid through the EC. The Commission's DG Competition is tasked with overseeing state aid. There have been earlier sets of guidelines on state aid to airports and airlines, but there is a current consultation - due to end on 25th September (which may be extended). The exact amount of state aid given to the aviation sector is somewhat shady, but is at least €3 billion, for those subsidies that are fully notified.There have been widely publicised cases, such as that of Ryanair at Charleroi airport. Transport & Environment have produced an easy-to-read briefing on the state aid situation, and people are urged to respond to the consultation. The state aid gives the aviation industry unmerited subsidy, and helps to encourage very high carbon travel.
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New long-distance Dreamliner 787 and A350 nullify need for larger Heathrow hub, says Zac Goldsmith
Conservative MP for Richmond Park, Zac Goldsmith, has said a massive increase in smaller, more fuel efficient planes during the next decade blows apart Heathrow’s argument for the need for a single hub airport. The 9-fold increase in the new generation of planes - the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and the Airbus A350, which can fly non-stop from London to the northern edge of Australia [eg. Darwin - but not as far as the main cities in southern Australia] will have a massive impact on the way airports are run. The new planes, nicknamed "hub busters", can fly more than 1,000 miles further non-stop than older planes, and will reduce the scale of passenger demand needed to make long-haul routes viable as they are smaller and need fewer passengers to transfer in from other planes, to fill them up. This will encourage airlines to bypass hub airports to serve direct connections - and is an important factor for the Airports Commission to consider. It means better use could be made of existing airports for point to point direct flights. “This ....moves us away from the traditional hub and spoke transfer model, and towards a model where air travel, even over very long distances, is primarily non-stop."
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An NGO message for the ICAO Assembly: Introduce a global market-based measure now
The Assembly of ICAO (the International Civil Aviation Organisation) takes place in Montreal between 24th September and 4th October. A decision on how to deal with global aviation emissions needs to be taken - if aviation globally was a country, it would rank 7th highest, after Germany. It is widely acknowledged that a market based measure (MBM) would be the most effective mechanism through which to do this. James Lees, from the Aviation Environment Federation, and Bill Hemmings, from Transport & Environment, writing in GreenAir online, say the solution to aviation’s runaway emissions is a "global MBM decided on now and to be introduced by 2016. It is no longer an option for continued disagreement in ICAO to prevent action on aviation’s contribution to climate change. At a time when President Obama has said so much about leading the way [on climate], the White House must finally ensure that the US becomes the global leader for action at the ICAO Assembly. It is time for everybody to take responsibility, stop shielding such a high emitting industry and act...now."
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Ryanair added 138 jobs per extra million passengers 2011 – 2013, but claim 1,000 jobs are created per additional million passengers
Ryanair is putting out statements that in its deal with MAG at Stansted, to increase the number of Ryanair passengers by 50% over 10 years, that it will - allegedly - create 7,000 new jobs. This claim is based on an outdated, and very frequently trotted out, assumption that some 1,000 new jobs are created for each additional 1 million passengers flying on an airline. The full service airlines, flying a lot of first class passengers on long haul flights, have a high ratio of staff to passengers. The cheapest low cost flights, offered to European destinations by the no-frills airlines, do not. Recent figures from Ryanair's annual reports, show that between 2011 and 2013, Ryanair had an extra 7.2 million passengers, but only 996 more staff. That works out as about 138 new Ryanair jobs per extra million passengers. Recent figures from EasyJet's own data show that in 2012, for each additional million EasyJet passengers, there were 41 new EasyJet jobs. There will be some extra airport jobs, to support more flights - but the level is nowhere remotely near 1,000 per million. That figure is exaggerated at least 5-fold, or more. In reality Ryanair creates as few extra jobs as possible, because it shaves costs to the bone
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MAG / Ryanair 10 year growth agreement at Stansted to increase Ryanair passengers by 50% in 10 years
Manchester Airports Group (MAG) and Ryanair have announced a new long-term growth agreement which will see Ryanair increase its number of passengers at Stansted from just over 13 million a year, to more than 18 million by 2018 and then to almost 21 million passengers a year by 2023. In return it wants lower costs and better facilities. MAG bought Stansted from BAA in February 2013. Ryanair is Stansted’s largest airline - with 140 + destinations during the past year; it has now announced 4 new Stansted routes for summer 2014. The new destinations - not currently served from Stansted - are Lisbon, Bordeaux, Dortmund and Rabat. MAG said they are confident Stansted can grow, though it has had consistently declining numbers of passengers for several years. MAG believes it can compete more effectively "to make the most of the airport’s untapped potential and spare capacity." MAG says "Stansted has a really bright future in providing international connectivity for the UK" - (which broadly means more holiday destinations for cheap flights, taking more Brits to spend their money abroad.)
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TUI Travel group calls for greater airline industry transparency in carbon reporting
TUI Travel, which owns six European leisure airlines including Thomson Airways and TUIfly, has called for an industry standard on reporting fuel and carbon efficiency for UK airlines. TUI says a set of common metrics to report airline carbon emissions would ensure greater transparency so customers can make informed decisions about which airlines to choose. TUI Travel currently reports its airlines’ carbon emissions on a per revenue passenger kilometre (gCO2/RPK) basis, a common standard but, it points out, not yet the standard unit of measurement used by all airlines to communicate their efficiency, and it accuses some airlines of failing to measure or report their carbon emissions. New carbon reporting legislation has been announced by the UK government for the largest companies and the UK Civil Aviation Authority has been tasked with communicating the environmental impact of aviation.