General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
EIB survey finds about 40% of Europeans say they would find flying less one of the easier ways to cut their CO2
The second release of the 2020-2021 European Investment Bank (EIB) climate survey focused on how people intended to fight climate change in 2021, what they were willing to give up to tackle the climate crisis, and how the COVID pandemic affected their travel habits.The data is now at least a year old, so things may have changed. The survey asked respondents how likely they were to do various things to cut their carbon emissions. These were giving up flying, giving up meat, giving up new clothes, giving up video streaming, and giving up having a car. Some 40% of Europeans [not including Brits after Brexit] said they would find it easiest to give up flying (it was 38% of Americans and 43% of Chinese respondents). The % varied between European countries. About 39% of Europeans and 38% of Americans say that giving up their car would be the most difficult option. The survey found that even when travel restrictions related to COVID are lifted, 37% of Chinese people, 22% of Europeans and 22% of Americans said they will avoid flying because of climate change concerns.
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DfT reinstates 70% slot use rule from end of March – with some flexibility for future Covid impacts
The Department for Transport has announced that airlines will have to hand back airport take-off and landing slots if they were not used 70% of the time from March 27th, for the summer period, up from the current threshold of 50%. Before Covid, airlines had to use 80% of their slots, or risk losing them. This limit was removed entirely for the first part of the pandemic, but reverted to 50% use. Airlines have warned they will be forced to run empty or half-empty and polluting “ghost flights” in order to meet the 70% limit, even if there is not enough demand for flights. This makes no sense, in terms of trying to reduce carbon emissions from the sector. However, the DfT has said there will be more flexibility, so airlines will be allowed to miss the 70% limit if there are real Covid travel restrictions in future, limiting travel. Airports like Gatwick are keen to have a high slot use requirement, so airlines that can not meet the quota have to relinquish slots to others - thus new airlines can start up routes. But for the airlines, high slot use requirements mean losing money - and higher CO2 emissions. They are against the re-imposition of high slot use requirements.
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Stansted had lowest number of passengers for 23 years in 2021
Stansted Airport handled just 7.1 million passengers in 2021, which is just 25% of the number in 2019. The 2021 number is the lowest since 1998, reflecting the dramatic reduction in air travel caused by Covid. In 2020 it handled 7.54 million passengers (73% lower than the 28.12 million in 2019). Stansted Airport Watch says both outbound and inbound tourism declined, due to Covid. But this decline in outward-bound tourism has had the effect of increasing the amount spent in the UK - not taken abroad on leisure trips. There was a favourable impact on the balance of payments of £26 billion in 2020, and a similar figure is expected in 2021. As well as online purchases, people swapped home improvements and furnishings, as well as staycations, for trips abroad. This helps explain why UK GDP is now even higher than before the pandemic, and employment levels are also at a record high. It is also reported that VAT receipts are well ahead of expectations. This may be because there is no VAT on air travel but spending on home improvements, furnishings and staycations are all subject to VAT. While leisure demand will largely return, it is likely business air travel will never recover to 2019 levels.
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CAA to have an Environmental Sustainability Panel, to advise it, from April
The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is creating a new Environmental Sustainability Panel, from April 2022. It will act as an expert 'critical friend' of the organisation and will provide technical advice. The intention is that it will ensure that environmental and "sustainability" interests are properly considered by CAA when it makes decisions. This will be an internal body, not public facing. The CAA is recruiting members for the panel, which will help the CAA to take proper account of the "environmental interests and impacts in its regulatory policy and framework." As the government decided in September 2021 to close the ICCAN (Independent Commission on Civil Aviation Noise) the CAA will have more duties relating to aircraft noise and the impact it has on people overflown. In the vain attempt to reduce the negative environmental impact of air travel, the CAA hopes to "balance" the need to reduce carbon emissions (ie. fuel burn) with the amount of aircraft noise. The panel will follow the model of the CAA's existing Consumer Panel.
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Motion to Liverpool City Council says its funding of the airport is not consistent with its climate aims
In a motion to the Labour-led Liverpool City Council, Green member Anna Key said supporting Liverpool John Lennon Airport (LJLA) was not in line with the authority's climate emergency declaration in 2019. For the Liverpool council to keep funding the city's airport is "incompatible" with its effort to fight climate change, and become "carbon neutral" by 2030. The motion will go before a full council meeting on 26 January. Liverpool City Council has a 10% stake in the airport. Anna also called for opposition to LJLA's "potential future expansion" plans. The plans for expansion would mean an increased number of flights, as well as destruction of valuable green space adjacent to the airport. There would also be more passenger and freight road traffic, causing air pollution and carbon emissions. Anna Kay said the council should stop supporting the airport financially. Her motion also calls on the council to get planners to undertake an urgent evidence-based review of all policies relating to green space, environment and green belt. There is a 38 Degrees petition to two councils, to protect the Oglet shore area from airport development.
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DfT non-public “information gathering” on Airport Consultative Committees
The Department for Transport is seeking views on Airport Consultative Committees (ACCs), but it is not a public consultation - just for members of the committees. These bodies are generally managed and paid for by the airport, and usually have one environmental representative, compared with many from councils, the airlines, business and the industry. Many airport groups have for years felt that the consultative committees do not give affected communities, or environmental issues, the proper consideration they deserve. Instead airport community groups say most consultative committees are just an extension of the airport’s PR machine. It would be better if the committees were funded independently, rather than having the airport pay the Chair and Secretary - which currently creates an underlying sense of obligation to the airport and its interests. Airport groups are suggesting that there needs to be a better, more independent process, and more democratic choice of chairs. With the recent abolition of ICCAN, there is even less independent oversight of airport operations. Providing greater independence for ACCs could help to redress this.
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City Airport hopes it can get business travellers back, in their droves, in 2022
Like every airport in the UK, London City airport had few passengers in 2021 and 2020, compared to the number before 2019. The number in 2021 was just 15% of the 2019 level. In 2020 it was just 19%. Now its chief executive, Robert Sinclair, is talking up its prospects for 2022. The airport had to have financial help from its investors, to survive the decline in travellers. But Sinclair is hopeful that business travellers will return, in high numbers - though it is widely believed that there will be less business air travel after Covid, as so many companies have adapted to internet meetings and videoconferencing, and changed their working patterns. London City airport had been increasing its proportion of leisure air travellers, though they are less lucrative than business travellers. But with the problems in getting bums back on plane seats, the airport will be hoping to tempt more leisure passengers. They intend to add purely holiday routes to Thessaloniki and Barcelona. But there may be a higher level of awareness of the climate impacts of aviation, meaning a proportion of people choose to fly less for leisure than they did in the past.
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Leeds Bradford Airport development plans at last to go to public inquiry – date unknown
Leeds Bradford airport Leeds Bradford submitted plans for new terminal building & more passengers (4m to 7m a year) in May 2020. There has been intense opposition to the plan, led by local opposition group, GALBA. In March 2021 the terminal plan was approved by Leeds City Council, but in April 2021 the government issued a direction to the Council, preventing councillors from granting the planning permission without special authorisation. There have been numerous requests for the application to be called in. Now it has been announced by the DLUHC - headed by Michael Gove - that the application will indeed go to a public inquiry - though the date is not yet decided. It is a triumph for the persistent pressure by opponents, managing to achieve this significant delay. The inquiry means the arguments against the expansion will be properly and fully heard. Some of the matters that Mr Gove "particularly wishes to be informed about" included the extent to which the proposed development is consistent with government policies for "protecting green belt land" and "meeting the challenge of climate change, flooding and coastal change". Airport expansion can only increase carbon emissions.
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UK government sued by ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth over ‘pie-in-the-sky’ net-zero climate strategy
ClientEarth and Friends of the Earth say the UK government's "net zero climate strategy" (published in October 2021) fails to include policies needed to ensure the necessary emissions cuts. Court papers filed on 12th January by the two organisations also say the failure to meet legal carbon budgets would contravene the Human Rights Act by impacting on young people’s right to life and family life. The strategy pushes the risks and duty to take action onto young people and future generations, who stand to be hit far harder than people today by the climate crisis. Instead of realistic, effective means of cutting the carbon emissions, the strategy relies on speculative technologies such as zero-carbon aviation fuels and extracting CO2 directly from the air and burying it. Both CE and FoE argue that the Climate Change Act requires ministers to set out policies to meet carbon budgets “as soon as reasonably practicable” after they have been set. There are no practical plans to cut aviation demand, or to effectively reduce the emissions from aviation, for decades. After the submission of the government’s defence, the high court will decide whether to grant full hearings of the cases.
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Heathrow will not return to “normal” (ie. 2019 levels) of passengers for several years (if ever)
Due to restrictions to try to avoid Omicron spreading, or more being introduced into the UK (it initially probably arrived due to air travel, from Africa) many people who had booked flights over Christmas cancelled. Heathrow said about 600,000 passengers due to use the airport had cancelled. This continued a bad year for the airport. It had only about 19.4 million passengers in 2021 compared to around 80 million in 2019 - ie. 24% of the 2019 number. It had a bit over 22 million in 2020 (so 2021 was 12.3% below 2020). CEO John Holland-Kaye did not expect a return to the level of passengers in 2019 for many years, perhaps by 2026. Even that is very uncertain.