General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Government fails to properly include international aviation in UK carbon budgets – decision put off till 2016
The government was legally required to make a statement to Parliament by the end of December on whether it will include CO2 emissions from international aviation and shipping (IAS) in the UK's climate target under the Climate Change Act. Today Ed Davey went against the advice from the Committee on Climate Change, and postponed the decision, using some ambiguous wording. His exact words were that the government "is deferring a firm decision on whether to include international aviation and shipping emissions within the UK’s net carbon account" and that it "will revisit this issue when setting the fifth Carbon Budget (2028 - 2032)." ie. in 2016, which is after the next general election. IAS will continue to be excluded from the first 4 carbon budgets, which run until 2027. The Chancellor and many Conservatives are reluctant to do anything that can be seen as strengthening environmental regulations. If the greenhouse gases from IAS were included in the UK targets, other sectors, including electricity generation and industry, would have to make steeper cuts in their emissions. Government justifies its postponement by arguing that there is uncertainty about the EU ETS at present, and also whether there just might be progress on a global aviation carbon scheme through ICAO in 2013.
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Boris pushing for a 4 runway hub at Stansted in his evidence to Airports Commission
The Sunday Times reports that Boris Johnson is planning to put forward the idea of a huge hub airport, with 4 runways, at Stansted. The Times says Boris will order a feasibility study into developing Stansted, and he will be submitting the findings from this study as his evidence to the Airports Commission under Sir Howard Davies. Boris is committed to opposing expansion at Heathrow, which would be deeply unpopular with thousands of Londoners, because of the noise intrusion. Boris is keen on building a huge new airport, but the Conservatives have a manifesto commitment for no new runways during the current parliament. George Osborne is not thought to favour a huge new Thames estuary airport, but he might be more supportive of expanding Stansted. In the concept of a massive Stansted hub, Heathrow would shrink. There has been fierce opposition to expanding Stansted in the past, and even building one extra runway proved difficult. Boris's plans for Stansted would be fought with passionate and determined intensity.
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IAG signs non-binding MOU with Ryanair for some 19 Heathrow slot pairs belonging to Aer Lingus
Ryanair, which owns 29.8% percent of Aer Lingus, in June renewed its effort to buy the rest of Aer Lingus, to boost its Irish operations. The EU blocked a previous takeover attempt 5 years ago, saying it would create a monopoly for Irish flights. Now IAG has signed a non-binding agreement to buy landing slots at Heathrow airport from Ryanair as part of its takeover bid for Aer Lingus. This is subject to EC approval, and Ryanair hopes the sale of the slots will help its bid to buy Aer Lingus. Ryanair proposed selling more than 85 % of Aer Lingus’s Heathrow slots and the FT says Ryanair has reached agreement with BA. Aer Lingus already has 23 daily slot pairs at Heathrow, which amounts to 3.5% of the total. It currently flies to Heathrow from Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Belfast. It recently tried - but failed - to get some of the 14 pairs of slots that had been owned by BMI. Let's see if BA uses its new slots for flights to the emerging markets - or just more lucrative tourist routes.
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December 2003: 9 years ago plans for Cliffe airport were turned down by Government
Nine years ago this weekend, the strength of people power was proved when north Kent campaigners made the then-Government see that a hub airport could never operate in the Thames Estuary. Now the threat is back again. Back in 2002, a new airport at Cliffe was one of several being considered by the Labour Government. On December 16, 2003, after a long-running, passionate campaign by people in north Kent, then-transport secretary Alistair Darling chose to leave the plan out of the Government’s airport expansion proposals. Reasons included the £11.5 billion cost, the risk of environmental damage and, notably, the danger of aircraft colliding with birds. A report by the Central Science Laboratory warned at the time that 200,000 wildfowl and wading birds over winter in the Thames Estuary – plus thousands in migration – should make the area off limits for such a large scale development.
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Changes to management of UK airspace to increase capacity and efficiency, and perhaps slightly reduce carbon emissions
Proposals to enhance the UK's airspace system, through the Future Airspace Strategy (FAS), that will increase airspace capacity, improve flight efficiency, and reduce aviation's environmental impact were recently discussed at a CAA conference. Airspace is seen by the CAA as a key part of the UK's transport infrastructure. The UK's current airspace system has not been significantly updated for over 40 years and the FAS project in intended to deliver "significant benefits for air passengers, the aviation industry and the environment." The new FAS improvements include allowing aircraft continuous climb-outs on takeoff that get aircraft to their optimum cruising altitude as quickly as possible; providing aircraft with more efficient routeings that save time and fuel; better management of arrivals at airports, such as reducing the time aircraft are in holding stacks; linking the whole aviation network together better and make use of the latest technology including Performance Based Navigation (PBN) that allow aircraft to use satellite navigation to fly much more accurate routes.
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Letter from NGOs and UK Chamber of Shipping asking Cameron to ensure aviation and shipping are included in the UK’s carbon accounts
The key green NGOs in the UK, and the UK Chamber of Shipping have written to David Cameron, asking that the UK includes international aviation and shipping (IAS) in our carbon accounts, bringing the sector into line with our world-leading legal framework for tackling climate change. The Government is required to take a decision on whether IAS are included in our carbon budgets by the end of this year. The NGOs, (the AEF, WWF, Greenpeace, CBT, FoE, CPRE ) and the UK Chamber of Shipping are asking that David Cameron should accept the recent advice of the Committee on Climate Change (CCC) by formally making provision for including emissions from these sectors in the carbon budgets. The integrity of the Climate Change Act 2008 requires that all sectors of the economy must contribute towards a cut in emissions of at least 80% by 2050 and aviation and shipping must be part of this long term emissions target. Recently aviation representatives said that they were comfortable with the CCC’s recommendations in relation to international aviation emissions.
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French farmers join environmental activists in protest against Notre-Dame-des-Landes airport
Useful article in English about the protests at Notre Dame des Landes, against a new Nantes airport. It says since mid-October, the number of occupiers has grown from 150 to as many as 500 at any given time. Today, they appear ubiquitous on the roads, in the fields and in the woods, building tents and cabins. With media attention now focused on Notre-Dame-des-Landes, Ayrault has pledged to form a commission to reopen talks on the airport. It is unclear what the commission will be able to accomplish. So far, the many evictions have made Notre-Dame-des-Landes headline news across the country, drawn increasing numbers of occupiers and strengthened links between the squatters and the farmers, who are determined to stay put. “We cannot fight and look for another farm,” says Marcel Thébault. “We can do one or the other, but not both. So today, we have not looked for another farm". “If we fight, the main reason is not because it is our farm and because we have put in so much work here. It’s difficult to leave a farm, but we could do it if the project was good. But on every level, [this airport] is bad. Also, we are so many together to fight this project. So, we stay.”
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IATA hopes global air freight will increase by a 5-year compound annual growth rate of 3%
IATA has said it expects global air freight, which has not grown much this year and declined in some regions, to grow in future. It expects an increase in global air freight in 2012 of 1.4% compared to 2011, followed by an increase over the next 5 years which compounded is 3% , up to 3.7% growth in the year 2016. In 2011 there were approximately 29.7 millions tonnes air freighted. IATA expects there to be 34.5 million tonnes air freighted in 2016. However, they expect the growth of air freight in Europe over the next 5 years to be only 2.2%, which is the slowest growth of any region. IATA expects the UK to have 1.8 million tonnes of international air freight by 2016, compared to 2.3 million tonnes in 2011, according to CAA data . By 2016, the largest international freight markets will be the United States (7.7 million tonnes), Germany (4.2 mt, China (3.5 mt, Hong Kong (3.2 mt), Japan (2.9 mt, the United Arab Emirates (2.5 mt), the Republic of Korea (1.9 mt), the UK (1.8 mt), India (1.6 mt) and the Netherlands (1.6 mt).
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New book “Tangled Wings” on the history of Gatwick airport and its neighbouring village, Charlwood
"Tangled Wings" tells the story of Gatwick from its opening in 1936 to the present day, as seen from the nearby village of Charlwood. The author, Brendon Sewill, has lived in Charlwood all his life and has held key posts at the centre of government, at the centre of the banking industry (when it was respectable) and at the centre of several national environmental bodies. He brings this experience to bear on the relationship between a small but historic village and an ever-expanding brash noisy airport. Part autobiography, part village history, part an account of the tangled development of British airports, makes this full size book an easy read. And there are plenty of fascinating illustrations. With the press full of speculation about where a new runway or a new airport should be built, "Tangled Wings" is a valuable contribution to the national debate. £10 + £3 p+p
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Tui Travel (owns Thomson and First Choice) paid no corporation tax in UK last year
Britain's biggest travel company paid no UK corporation tax in its last financial year despite posting record annual profits on Tuesday. Tui said it had been a year of "many successes", with an 8% leap in underlying pre-tax profits to £390m. But its UK corporation tax bill was zero as a result of losses incurred following a restructuring launched 5 years ago. It said it would start paying tax again once those losses have been carried forward and that it was paying the "right amount of corporation tax" in the countries in which it operates. Tui said it was "fully compliant with UK tax law", and it expected to pay small amounts of UK corporation tax in 2013/14 with significantly larger amounts in later years as brought-forward losses were eliminated. It is galling that a company can both crow about financial successes, and yet avoid making the sort of tax payments that would therefore be expected. EasyJet also pays very little corporation tax. So much for the alleged huge financial contribution that aviation makes to the UK. The tax affairs of Google, Amazon and Starbucks have made many in the UK very angry indeed.