General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Questions asked by London Assembly about the BA plane with a burning engine flying over millions of Londoners
Richard Tracey, London Assembly Member for Merton and Wandsworth, has written to Heathrow authorities to ask why the BA aircraft with its engine ablaze was routed to fly back into Heathrow last week rather than being diverted elsewhere. Richard's questions followed worried enquiries from Wandsworth councillors Rosemary Torrington and James Maddan who represent the riverside Thamesfield ward on the flightpath. He received a prompt response Heathrow's Government Relations Manager: "The normal procedure in these circumstances if for the Captain to decide what is the safest course of action, and this is what happened in this case. This is an approved procedure." Richard Tracey commented that the damaged aircraft flew over Slough, Watford, parts of Essex, Battersea, Putney, Chelsea, Fulham, Hammersmith and Hounslow. "This is complete madness. Three or four million people on the ground were put at risk and thousands of travellers from Heathrow had their flights cancelled. Incoming flights were diverted to Stansted, Luton, Cardiff, even Manston". "We are now seriously considering taking this further , including talks with Heathrow and British Airways."
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Heathrow emergency landing of BA plane with engine on fire: Engine cowls had been left unlatched
Air accident investigators say the doors on both engines of the BA flight that made an emergency landing at Heathrow last week had been left unlatched. This was due to human error. Air accident experts said the coverings - the fan cowl doors - broke off and punctured the right engine's fuel pipe, damaging the aircraft's systems. The engine was extensively damaged. The jet flew back to Heathrow, on one engine, with smoke trailing from the other, right across heavily populated London. It landed safely. The findings were made in an interim report by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is examining the cause of the emergency It will make its final report in a couple of months. The fan cowl doors on both engines were left unlatched during maintenance and this was not identified prior to aircraft departure. BA confirmed that 2 different engineers would normally check whether a plane's engine covers had been shut before take-off. David Learmount, former pilot: "This is a bit of an accident waiting to happen because it is so difficult to see". Airbus said there had, in the past, been 32 reported incidents of fan cowl doors not being shut.
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Balfour Beatty may sell Exeter airport due to financial problems
Exeter airport was sold by DevonCounty Council to the airports group of British infrastructure company, Balfour Beatty, in early 2007. Now Balfour Beatty has started looking for buyers for its 60% stake, according to Sky news. The price is not known. Balfour Beatty has not been doing well in recent years, and they issued their second profits warning in six months, blaming “extremely tough” market conditions etc. The airport has not been doing well. The number of travellers using Exeter Airport topped one million in 2007 but has been falling since then, though the rate of decline has slowed since 2009. In 2012 passenger numbers were down to 697,074, following a drop of nearly 4% in 2011. About 250 people are directly employed by the airport, with a further 50 working at car parks, catering and retail concessions on the site. The remaining shareholding in Exeter airport is owned by Galaxy, a specialist fund which is backed by French and Italian investors and the European Commission.
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Think tank, Independent Transport Commission, recommends one hub airport, at Heathrow, Stansted or Thames Estuary
A charity land use and transport think tank, the Independent Transport Commission (ITC), have produced a report - to be submitted to the Airports Commission, on airport capacity. The ITC report says one major hub airport is needed, in order to compete with European rival airports. Heathrow cannot be left as it is. They say using two London airports to share the load will not do. They also say that if that hub is not Heathrow, then Heathrow would need to close, in order to give investors confidence that airlines would move their business. Closing Heathrow would have immense implications, with 114,000 people directly and indirectly employed by the airport. Its closure would have impacts on their families and the communities in which they live - but release a huge area of land (some 1,200 acres for profitable re-development..... though a town the size of Peterborough would be needed for the new hub airport. Their report follows a call for evidence last summer. The ITC's key worry seems to be that "...we are losing that capacity to Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt [and] Schiphol and the airlines will want to use those airports."
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Scots want APD devolved to Scotland before 2014 Games and London flight guarantees
In 2014 the 2014 the Commonwealth Games and the Ryder Cup will be held in Scotland. This, together with the recent decision by Flybe to sell all their landing slots at Gatwick, has prompted more calls to the Treasury,by the Scottish government to, get devolution of APD (Air Passenger Duty). Scotland wants to both deal with their own air travel tax, and also get guarantees of London airport slots for Scottish flights. Heathrow and Gatwick prefer larger planes to more profitable long haul destinations, and smaller planes from domestic airports are less lucrative for them. The Scottish government are claiming that the extra cost of £13 per flight within the UK (£26 for a return flight) is deterring tourists coming from London. As air travel pays no fuel duty and no VAT, removing or reducing APD would make the sector even more under-taxed than it is at present. The Flybe Gatwick slots will be taken over by EasyJet, which is likely to use them for more profitable destinations abroad, as that would make more money for shareholders than UK flights.
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Possibility of a rise in US tax on air tickets to pay for air traffic control, security, customs etc
In the USA, the Obama administration has proposed raising the taxes on air travel by about $14 per flight. This, predictably, is being opposed by airlines. In the USA air passengers pay various taxes, much of which goes to fund security, customs, immigration services, air traffic control and airport improvements. There is also some need to help fund the country's economic deficit. At present, the taxpayer pays for some of these things, with the full costs not being born by air travellers. Questions are being asked about whether tax increases be avoided if the money collected were spent more efficiently. A $300 domestic airline ticket now includes about $60 in taxes — or 20% of the total fare. If the rise took place, this would rise from$60 to about $74 per ticket. Airlines, of course, say their passengers are already overtaxed - and rises would hurt the economy. Just like in the UK. In reality, the fees have not increased in years, contributing to outdated systems, flight delays and long lines. And US airlines pay a very reduced level of duty on jet fuel - about 5 cents per gallon.
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Remarkable absence of concern about safety of Londoners in media reports of BA plane engine fire
While a BA plane limped back right across London, flying over miles of the city and thousands or hundreds of thousands of Londoners, with one burning engine and the outside of the other damaged - the media seem not even to consider the safety aspects of the story. It seems the cause of the problem could be a technical fault with the plane, rather than a bird strike. The Telegraph writes about the large number of passengers getting away for the bank holiday weekend, and how their flights are delayed. Simon Calder writing in the Independent takes the opportunity of heading his article "Emergency landing at Heathrow sparks further controversy over London airport capacity" though he does have the decency to add one comment from a member of the public in his piece to say that “London is one of the very few cities in the world that has its main flight paths over the city. A very serious accident is not a question of if, but when.”
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Damaged BA plane on one engine and trailing smoke from the other, flies right across London for emergency landing at Heathrow
A British Airways flight (BA 762) from Heathrow to Oslo was forced to turn back immediately after take off, due to what is likely to have been bird strike. The Airbus A319 was powered by two IAE V2500 engines. The left engine appears to have hit an object at take-off, which stripped off the engine cowling. The right engine then may have hit something, and there are observer accounts of a bang. The plane did a large loop around London, in order to land again, using only the left engine. Many observers saw, and recorded, the plane - trailing smoke from the right engine, as it flew right across London. The plane made a safe landing, though passengers were evacuated down emergency chutes, and there were only 3 minor injuries. Heathrow airport was disrupted for hours due to the emergency landing. While those in favour of expanding the airport are likely to use this dangerous incident to call for more airport capacity (so Heathrow can cope with incidents without delays) it would be more relevant and more responsible to question how safe it is to have disabled planes flying miles over densely populated London. Luckily this time, there was no crash. With Heathrow airport hoping to get another runway (or two) the safety issue of flying more and more planes over hundreds of thousands of people has to be confronted.
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Standard speculates whether Labour cabinet tend towards backing Gatwick runway
The Standard says Labour was moving towards backing a 2nd runway at Gatwick before the Airports Commission was set up. Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle has already publicly ruled out a 3rd runway at Heathrow, and Ed Miliband is"sceptical" about it. Maria Eagle has also rejected Boris’s idea of an airport in the Thames Estuary, largely on cost grounds, branding it an “unworkable fantasy”. A 2nd runway at Gatwick cannot be built before 2019 under a legal agreement, but the Standard says Ms Eagle is understood to have seen a Gatwick runway as a stronger contender than expanding Stansted, if the South-East needed extra aviation capacity. Gatwick is opening new routes, including to the Far East, as it seeks to become a rival to Heathrow while Stansted still has spare capacity. Labour says it will await the Commission's conclusions before drawing up its new policy. Supporting expansion at Gatwick, or Stansted, had also not been agreed by the shadow cabinet.
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Flybe to end all domestic flights from Gatwick by March 2014 after selling its 25 slot pairs to easyJet
Flybe is to stop all of its Gatwick flights after agreeing to sell all its 25 pairs of slots to EasyJet for £20 million, as it needs the money. That only leaves Flybe with a few London slots, at Luton. Flybe will leave Gatwick the end of March 2014. That means the end of its flights from Gatwick to Belfast City, Guernsey, Inverness, the Isle of Man, Jersey, Newcastle and Newquay. EasyJet is under no obligation to replace domestic flights, and will just use the slots for the most profitable holiday routes. There are concerns in Inverness about losing their Gatwick link. Flybe launched an expensive complaint to the CAA in 2010, complaining about the level of its charges. However the CAA ruled in September that Gatwick was within its rights to raise its landing fees for smaller aircraft, as it prefers to use slots for larger planes carrying more passengers. Flybe has been hit because on domestic flights, APD of £13 is charged on both legs of a journey. Flybe's Chairman, Jim French said that even if Gatwick did not want its passengers, other airports would, and Flybe would work to ensure that the "UK's regional passengers don't get left in the cold."