General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Two great articles, by John Harris and by Geoffrey Lean, on growing rebellion about infrastructure projects being imposed on countryside
John Harris: "All over the country, an old story is back with a vengeance: the power of corporations and government colliding with much more human imperatives, and sparking trouble. It's there in an increasingly widespread juxtaposition of hi-vis jackets, drilling kit and security guards, and serene British countryside. " "In a country as deindustrialised as the UK, ministers will always go weak-kneed about grand projects and new technologies. But the lingering effects of the crash have pushed their thinking into the realms of the neurotic, as government has been seized by a mixture of fear, profiteering zeal and metropolitan arrogance. All of these extend beyond energy policy into such issues as road-building, the dazzlingly stupid plan for high-speed rail, the current mania for airport expansion". "... people rattled by what's happening to their communities may cite such functional concerns as traffic congestion and noise pollution, but their take on things runs a bit deeper than that, into the profound stuff of place, history and collective identity." "... as events in Balcombe prove, plenty of people are now standing in the way of an economic system that has never been more rapacious and corrupt, and demanding something surprisingly radical: peace and quiet."
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Swiss petition to stop expansion of Geneva airport, for yet more low cost passengers
Opponents of expansion at Geneva airport have a petition to Le Grand Conseil in Geneva, asking for an end to expansion of the airport. They point out that CO2 emissions from the airport totally cancel out all Geneva's efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from other sectors, and that sale of jet fuel by Geneva airport increased by 78% between 2000 and 2011. The phenomenal rise in passenger traffic in recent years is mainly due to the development of "low cost" flights, with a lot of growth by EasyJet, stimulating previously non-existent demand for leisure travel. People who do not have any real need or necessity to fly are doing so, and have no regard to the environmental impacts of their flights. There have been many months of local opposition to plans to build a new terminal - “l’Aile est” which is due to be finished by 2016, to accommodate large planes. Environmental groups including WWF, the Geneva Green party and associations for neighbourhoods next to the airport are deeply opposed to the proposal, saying it will boost air traffic, carbon emissions and air pollution. Other opponents believe that low-cost airlines are flourishing at the expense of passenger rail and that higher airport taxes should be levied to offset the increased CO2 emissions.
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Report shows EU governments miss out on up to €39bn a year due to aviation’s tax breaks (no VAT or fuel duty)
IA report has been produced, by consultants CE Delft, for the sustainable transport group, Transport & Environment (T&E). It shows that debt-ridden EU countries miss out on up to €39bn every year from airlines not paying taxes. CE Delft found that this revenue shortfall is due to out-dated EU laws exempting international flights from fuel taxes, and from VAT, which is levied on almost all consumer goods. While every European consumer, small business and haulier has to pay on average a tax of €0.48 / litre of fuel for petrol or diesel, big commercial airlines - both those based in the EU and overseas - don’t pay any tax on their fuel. This revenue shortfall totals up to €32bn a year. In addition to this EU governments miss out on €7.1bn every year on VAT which is exempt on international flight tickets. T&E’s aviation policy officer Aoife O’Leary said: “International airlines are like flying tax havens inexplicably exempted from paying the basic EU taxes every EU citizen and company is obliged to pay." However the airline industry says that without such tax holidays it would be hard pressed to turn a profit. (So much fuel used. So much CO2 generated. So little profit.) The EU consultation on state aid to airports & airlines closes 25th September.
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Former Cabinet Secretary Gus O’Donnell to head Frontier Economics, which is pushing for Heathrow growth
Lord Gus O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary, has been announced as the new chair of the economics consultancy, Frontier Economics. He will work on day a week, starting towards the end of this year. His role will involve seeking to change government policies on the behalf of Frontier's corporate clients, which include Heathrow airport. Frontier has been advising Heathrow on its plans for a 3rd runway and expansion. Frontier Economics produced a report for Heathrow, backing its case as the key hub airport for the UK and its expansion, in September 2011. The Frontier report claimed that London would become only Europe’s 3rd busiest airport (behind Paris and Frankfurt) unless the Government freed up more capacity and enabled more direct flights to emerging markets. The Times comments on how Sir Gus is not the first senior civil servant who has been able to get a very well paid and influential job in consultancy because of their experience in Government, and their contacts there.
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Transcripts of the Airports Commission’s 2 public evidence sessions and links to presentations
The Airports Commission have now published their verbatim transcripts of their two (and only) public evidence sessions, on 9th and 10th July. The first session on 9th July (held in Manchester) was on climate, at which AEF (Tim Johnson and Cait Hewitt) and WWF (Jean Leston and Tom Vita) gave presentations, followed by the industry group, Sustainable Aviation (Matt Gorman and Jonathan Counsell). The second session on 9th July was on demand and connectivity. SSE (Brian Ross) gave a presentation, followed by the CBI (Nicola Walker). The 10th July session (held in London) was on Airport Operational Models 1. The morning session for BA (Willie Walsh), Heathrow (Colin Matthews), Mayor of London's office (Daniel Moylan and Richard de Cani, TfL). The second session on 10th July was also on Airport Operational Models 2, with evidence from EasyJet (Carolyn McCall), Birmingham Airport (Paul Kehoe), Gatwick Airport (Sir Roy McNulty) and MAG (Tim Hawkins). Not all 13 organisations giving evidence at the two sessions submitted a visual presentation. There are links to the presentations that were given. The verbatim transcript cover what was said by others, including questions from the floor, and responses given.
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Heathrow to track customers through airport to avoid delays and improve efficiency
People who fail to turn up for flights cost airlines dearly, especially if their luggage has to be removed from the plane. So Heathrow is rolling out a new system of smart boarding cards that it believes will improve the punctuality of nearly half of flights. And so enable the airport to deal with more flights, with no new runway. Boarding passes already include a bar code in which the passenger’s flight details are embedded, including the gate and terminal. Instead of being read by airport staff, the pass is scanned by an automatic gate and can be used to tell airlines if, for example, a passenger has entered the departure lounge. In a week of trials at Terminals 1 and 3, Virgin Atlantic and Little Red found that 44% of the 35,000 departing passengers were in danger of arriving at the gate late. Offloading luggage because owners have failed to turn up can lead to planes losing their take-off slots, leading to delays which, according to industry estimates, cost £67 for each minute the plane is on the Tarmac or stuck on the stand. "Should the information show passengers are in danger of not reaching the gate in time, a message on a screen warns them to hurry up and not dawdle at the duty-free shops."
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Stop Stansted Expansion calls for resignation of Geoff Muirhead from Airports Commission due to bias
Campaign group Stop Stansted Expansion SSE have highlighted the problem of a conflict of interest concerning Geoff Muirhead, who is a member of the government-appointed Airports Commission. Mr Muirhead retired as chief executive of MAG in 2010, and he represented MAG in an “ambassadorial role” until January 2013, several months after he was appointed to the Airports Commission. MAG bought Stansted from BAA in February 2013. Earlier this month MAG published options on where to build a second runway at Stansted and potentially even expand it into a four-runway hub. SSE are calling for Mr Muirhead's resignation. SSE has written to Sir Howard Davies, chairman of the Commission and Patrick McLoughlin, the Secretary of State for Transport, warning it will mount a legal challenge if Mr Muirhead refuses to step down. The group claims in the letter, seen by The Sunday Telegraph, that there is an issue of “apparent bias”. The letter (26th July) says: “In the circumstances we consider it unacceptable for Mr Muirhead to continue to serve on the Airports Commission and the longer he continues to serve, the more the process risks being tainted.” SSE will start taking legal advice within 14 days if they receive no satisfactory commitment on the matter.
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Birmingham Airport publishes proposals for its future growth to the Airports Commission
Birmingham Airport has made a submission to the Airports Commission on its future growth plans. It hopes to grow from 9m passengers a year now to 70m, (the size of Heathrow currently) while allegedly reducing the number of people affected by night noise. They are aware that the Commission is looking at the number affected by noise in the proposals submitted. Birmingham airport says its current runway extension will allow it to handle 27m passengers a year and it has the potential for a 2nd runway to be built some time after 2030 - if the demand required it - costing under £7 billion. The airport estimates that by using the new runway for night flights, it would remove over 13,000 people from the 57dB night noise contour. Birmingham airport say they have support from a large number of businesses in the area, and are well placed for business travellers who are keen to avoid Heathrow and get direct flights to Birmingham. “We have recommended to the commission a network of great long-haul airports to serve Britain’s great cities. Our proposals show that Birmingham Airport is in a position to sit at the heart of this network, serving a valuable catchment area and relieving pressure on congested airports in the South East.”
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Emirates considers direct flights to the USA from UK northern airports, not Heathrow
Dubai’s Emirates Airline is interested in getting into the competitive transatlantic market, and offer flights from Dubai to the US via the UK. This market is currently dominated by BA, Virgin Atlantic, Delta Air Lines and American Airlines. Emirates will need to get regulatory approval first. Emirates believes there is strong unmet demand for flights from the north of England to the USA and last year carried 800,000 passengers on its routes in and out of its hubs in the north of England: Glasgow, Newcastle, Manchester and Birmingham. There are growing numbers of Emirates passengers and services from these northern UK airports. In October, Emirates will launch flights from Dubai to New York via Milan. Their UK vice president said they are asking the Airports Commission to look at making all the regional airports completely open skies, so anyone can fly anywhere. If they use the northern airports, there is less pressure on the south east airports, and less rationale for building another runway. "Heathrow sits in the south of England, but Manchester has a bigger catchment area in terms of a two-hour drive.” If Emirates goes through with the plan BA and Virgin will be the big losers.
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Heathrow says its investment plans are at risk if CAA limits its charges to airlines
Heathrow wants to put up its charges to airlines significantly. The CAA controls how much the airport can charge, and it has indicated that it will limit the rise in the amount Heathrow can charge to the rate of inflation plus 4.6% per year. However, Heathrow says its shareholders would not be willing to proceed with plans to invest £3bn in the airport over the next 5 years if the CAA imposes stricter controls on price rises. Colin Matthews, chief executive of Heathrow. said they would not proceed with capital spending of no more than £2bn if the CAA does not let them charge the amount they consider acceptable as a return for investors. There is a long term battle between Heathrow and the airlines, and Heathrow has some of the highest charges of any global airport. Heathrow has just reported a pre-tax profit of £186 million for the half year up to June 2013, though they made a loss of £51 million in the same period in 2012. This is largely due to the sale of Stansted. Heathrow's passenger traffic rose 2.4% in the 6 months to June 2013, compared to 2012, to 34.4 million. Most of the growth was European traffic, which rose 4.9% to 14.3 million passengers.