General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Borough-wide consultations by Richmond, Hounslow and Hillingdon Boroughs on Heathrow expansion – end 16th May
Hounslow Council has a community consultation, called "Make Some Noise Over Heathrow" through which they are trying to assess the views of their borough residents on Heathrow expansion. Residents can comment online or via a paper questionnaire, which is being distributed to some 100,000 households. The consultation started on 9th April and ends on 16th May. Richmond and Hillingdon councils have similar consultations which also end on 16th May. Hounslow is one of the places most affected by noise from the airport, lying directly under both main approach paths from east to west, and is also affected by noise from easterly take-offs. Cllr Colin Ellar, deputy leader and cabinet member for environment, said while appreciating that many borough residents work at Heathrow, they want a better deal for all residents who suffer the environmental downsides of Heathrow, particularly aircraft noise. They want the views of residents to be heard above those of government or of Heathrow itself. The results of the consultation will be presented to the Airports Commission later in the summer.
Click here to view full story...
Airlines to try new infrared detectors of volcanic ash to protect aircraft engines
In order to try and prevent plane engines being damaged when flying through very fine ash particles from a volcano, a test is to be conducted in August of a system that may allow planes to detect ash some 10 -30 km ahead, in order to avoid it. The test are to be done by Nicarnica Aviation, easyJet and Airbus. Two aircraft will be used, with the first dispersing the ash collected earlier from Iceland. The second aircraft following at 30,000ft will carry a pod containing infrared sensors, which can detect silica in the air, from the ash. The aim is to allow planes time to divert. A tonne of ash has been flown to in preparation for an airborne test of the imaging system aboard an airliner. Two large volcanoes in Iceland, Katla and Hekla, have not erupted for some time and there are signs that they may erupt before long. However, whether this is within a month or several years is not known. When the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted in April 2010, aircraft in Europe and in the UK were grounded for six days. If an Icelandic volcano erupts with a lot of ash ejected, and there are north westerly winds, Europe could be affected again.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow considering a range of runway options including long & short 3rd runway, and 4 runway airport at Haddenham or White Waltham
"Aviation Week" has reported that Heathrow is considering at least 10 expansion options which are being whittled down. These "Heathrow 2025: Masterplan Options & Indicative Layouts" documents - seen by Aviation Week - were produced by the Mott MacDonald consultancy. Four of the options are a short 3rd runway north of the airport, at Sipson - or a long 3rd runway there. Another two options are for a 4 runway airport (each the same design) either at Haddenham or at White Waltham. Haddenham is about 15 miles east of Oxford, and building a vast airport there, in countryside, would mean the virtual removal of two villages, Chearsley and Long Crendon. White Waltham is a small general aviation airfield about 15 miles west of Heathrow and close to Maidenhead. The 4 runway airport design could potentially handle 140 million passengers and 800,000 air traffic movements a year, (compared to some 70 million passengers and around 480,000 movements now) - so that is just under twice Heathrow's capacity today. The current designs are early drafts developed last year, and Heathrow will be "making its considered submission to the Airports Commission in July.” .
Click here to view full story...
Airports Commission unveils new expert panel
The Airports Commission has announced the composition of its new expert panel, the job of which is to ensure the Commission has access to good scientific and technical expertise in its deliberations. Sir Howard Davies said, of the panel: "The experts we have appointed bring a wide range of skills and experience, and will ensure the Commission has access to a broad spectrum of quality scientific and technical expertise as we progress our work." There are several experts on the panel with environmental expertise; Professor Helen ApSimon - studies Air Pollution; Dr Charlotte Clark works on Environmental and Mental Health Epidemidogy, including noise; Professor Piers Forster; works on Physical Climate Change with interest in forest: Dr Andrew Kempton works on noise for Rolls Royce; Professor Andreas Schäfer works on Energy and Transport; Professor Keith P. Shine is head of the Atmospheric Radiation and Climate group at Reading University including radiative forcing; and Professor Callum Thomas; Professor of Sustainable Aviation, Manchester Metropolitan University (by training, a bird biologist). There is some biographical detail about all the expert panel members.
Click here to view full story...
New book on carbon footprint of international air passengers – shows Heathrow massively ahead of any other world airport by CO2
In a new book on global aviation carbon emissions, by Dave Southgate in Australia, there are a multitude of remarkable facts. The book gives details of CO2 emissions country by country, airport by airport and airline by airline. The UK comes second globally for the amount of carbon produced from international flying, second only to the USA, and above Germany (3rd), UAE (4th) and Japan (5th). The CO2 emissions generated from flights from Heathrow are not only the highest from any airport in the world, but they are some 45% higher than the second airport, ranked by CO2. Heathrow's CO2 emissions are some 16.4 kt CO2, compared to Dubai in second place(11 kt), Hong Kong third (10.3 kt) and Frankfurt fourth (10.2 kt). In a global ranking of size of country carbon emissions, Heathrow would occupy 4th position in the country hierarchy if it were a country. The top 10 countries constitute 50% of the global aviation carbon footprint. The carbon emissions of British Airways are the 2nd largest of any airline, other than Emirates. Many more details in Dave Southgate's book.
Click here to view full story...
Global air passenger demand up 5.9% in March and up 3.7% in February
IATA figures for global demand for air passenger travel show an increase of 5.9% (combining international and domestic) for March, compared to March 2012. Latin America, the Middle East and China grew the most, (domestic flights within China increased about 12%). There was less growth in Europe and North America - with 3.6% and 2.8% respectively, but even this was substantial growth - though the timing of Easter, early this year, may have had an effect. For Europe, IATA comments: ..." the trend for international travel on European airlines has been largely flat since October 2012, reflecting persisting weakness in the Eurozone economy and recent downward revisions to growth expectations for 2013. Nearly flat capacity growth of 0.4% helped propel load factor 2.6 percentage points to 81.2%". So most European planes still have more than 18% of seats empty. For February, IATA said global air passenger demand rose 3.7% compared to February 2012.
Click here to view full story...
George Monbiot on the apparent failure of the UK government to understand the precautionary principle
George Monbiot seems to have stumbled upon very important failing in the way our government considers the environment. The precautionary principle. This was defined in the Rio Declaration, which the UK, with 171 other states, signed in 1992, as: “Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation.” And the European Commission says it has “become a full-fledged and general principle of international law.” However, the new Chief Scientist Sir Mark Walport has defined it as “working out and balancing in advance all the risks and benefits of action or inaction, and to make a proportionate response.” Very different. And much weaker. Monbiot then checked with Defra and found they initially had no working definition of the precautionary principle and had to cobble one together. Monbiot says the Uk government "appears not to possess a definition of the principle which sits at the heart of environmental protection and environmental law. This could explain quite a lot." eg. on climate, biodiversity offsetting not to mention bees etc.
Click here to view full story...
Supreme Court rules UK Government is breaking air pollution laws
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the government has failed to meet European air pollution limits. Britain will therefore face European fines and may have to drastically reduce the use of heavy goods vehicles and cars in some of the UK’s major cities. Much of the problem is from diesel vehicles. The Supreme Court said "The way is open for immediate enforcement action at national and European level.” The government had been challenged by ClientEarth (lawyers who work on environmental issues) because of air quality concerns in 15 cities and regions across the UK, including London ( where one area that is very bad is around the Heathrow area), Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow. The low air quality is already having a marked effect on health, and ClientEarth felt the only way to get the UK government to act on the matter was legal action. The UK has so far made repeated attempts to get the air quality limits weakened or delayed. The European Court of Justice will have to clear up some legal issues, so the UK government may be able to play for time and delay doing anything for a year or so. The infringement action to be taken has not yet been decided. This will have an impact on Heathrow expansion plans.
Click here to view full story...
Airport capacity in London is currently underused, says new London Assembly report
The London Assembly's Transport Committee has published a report – "Airport Capacity in London" - which suggests existing airport capacity in London, including at Heathrow and Gatwick, could be used more effectively. Their research shows Stansted (summer 2012) was only 47% full; Gatwick was 88% full; Luton was 49% full. At Heathrow there is terminal capacity for 20 million more passengers, so if larger planes were used, there is ample surplus capacity - though landing slots are 99% filled. To encourage passengers to switch from Heathrow, the report says improving transport access from central London to Gatwick, Luton and Stansted is needed – for example, by better rail connections and actively promoting public transport. The report questions the alleged "need" for additional hub airport capacity, as the vast majority of passengers using Heathrow few direct, point to point, rather than transferring. The report also notes that 75% of flights from Heathrow are short haul and that London remains the best connected European city to 23 fastest growing economies. The Transport Committee hopes its report will inform the Airports Commission, and says the Commission must examine whether better use of existing airport capacity could be an intelligent cost-effective alternative to building new airports or runways.
Click here to view full story...
Airline style discounting by rail cuts aviation’s domestic market share
On the 10 busiest domestic air routes, mainly between the south of England and Scotland, (or Bristol or Birmingham to Scotland) the market share of rail travel increased from 29% to 46% between 2006 and 2012. During those 6 years, the number of train journeys rose 52% (to about 7.7 million journeys) while at the same time the number of domestic air passengers fell by about 26% to about 9 million). The total number of trips by both means fell by some 3% over the period, due to the economic slowdown. The rail companies have taken to giving more discounted tickets over recent years. Data from the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) shows that around a quarter of all rail journeys are made using one or other sort of Railcard, giving around a third off the price. The growth of use of these Railcards has grown by some 92% over 6 years. The number paying full fare has fallen by some 37% and those buying advance tickets has risen by some 103%. There were some 21.1 million air passengers on all UK domestic routes in 2012, and about 2.3 million passengers in 2011. By contrast there were some 26 million domestic air journeys in 2006.