General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Saturday 24th November: European Day of Action against Night Flights – Pyjama Photocall under the Heathrow Flight path
On 24th November Heathrow campaigners staged an event in Hounslow (Lampton Park) as part of the European Day of Action against Night Flights. People whose lives are badly affected by disturbed sleep from night flights got together to say "Ban Night Flights" - with a colourful display of banners, pillows, duvets, dressing gowns, slippers, nightwear, and hot water bottles. The UK Government is expected to consult next month on a new night flight regime for the three designated airports – Heathrow, Stansted and Gatwick. The current agreement with the airlines runs out in October 2014. Night flights are hated across Europe and demonstrators across Europe are also calling for the widely hated night flights to be banned. Events were staged in Belgium, Italy and across Germany. This day of action is expected to mark the start of a Europe-wide campaign to get them banned.
Click here to view full story...
EC stance on air pollution in London could affect ability of Heathrow to expand
Government plans to delay air pollution improvements in 12 areas of the UK areas were refused by the European Commission in June. The UK may now face fines if it fails to improve air quality quickly. The worst offender is London, where it is estimated that there over 4,000 ‘excess deaths’ per year from air pollution. This could have implications for Heathrow expansion. Air pollution is recognised by the government as the 2nd-biggest public health threat, after smoking. A judgement will be made at a later date on government plans to delay meeting NO2 standards in major cities until 2020 – or in the case of London, 2025. The EC decision addresses the shorter term, whereas a 3rd runway at Heathrow could not be operation for about 10 years. However, the tough stance by the EC suggests that any plan for Heathrow expansion, which increased air pollution and prevented limits being met, would face legal action.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow gets another report from Frontier Economies – pushing dodgy figure of £14 billion loss in trade … if no massive UK hub
Heathrow has commissioned yet another report from Frontier Economics, making out that there is a huge loss - "up to £14 billion per year" - to the UK economy from not having a massive hub airport. Colin Matthew does admit that the headline figure,for purposes of publicity, of £14 billion "should be treated with caution". ie. it is a somewhat random figure, and quite how it is arrived at is not explained. In a Frontier Economics report in September 2011 they said there might be a £14 billion loss of trade over 10 years, not per year. The analysis seems to seriously confuse chicken and egg. Do more flights to certain destinations generate more trade - or are more flights needed once there is already trade with that destination? This seems to be a very one-sided report, putting a flimsy case for self-serving ends, and deliberately misleading on the realities on air travel. In reality 70% or so of flghts from Heathrow are for leisure purposes - not businesses. More long haul flights for leisure are what airport expansion would promote. These lucrative routes are what Heathrow wants more of. More flights are profitable for airlines and airports, without doubt. But the benefit to the UK economy as a whole is very much less certain.
Click here to view full story...
BAA challenged on claim that it is lack of runway capacity at Heathrow that is limiting flights to China
HACAN has challenged BAA’s claim that it is lack of capacity at Heathrow that is limiting the number of flights between the UK and mainland China. In reality there is a bilateral agreement between the two countries which restricts passenger flights between the two countries to 62 a week - 31 each. HACAN has also produced evidence to show that the greater difficulty of getting a visa for the UK than for the EU is a major deterrent to Chinese people coming to Britain. BAA is claiming, disingenuously or dishonestly, that Frankfurt and Paris are leaving Heathrow behind as they forge ahead with extra flights to Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou - while conveniently omitting to mention that Heathrow has many more flights to Hong Kong, which is also an important part of China and a key hub airport. BAA is working hard to make out that huge numbers of transfer passengers are important for London's economy. In reality Heathrow has the largest number of terminating passengers of any airport in the world. Therefore it does not need the extra passengers an expanded hub would bring to make it commercially viable to operate lots of flights to key business destinations.
Click here to view full story...
Notre Dame des Landes. The ZAD. One person’s account of what is going on and why.
This is a long, personal account of what is going on at Notre Dame des Landes, by someone there with the anti-capitalists who are fighting the police and the authorities to defend the site. Vinci want to start work on the new airport and the roads for it by the end of November. The activists hope to take back some land on 17th November. The anti capitalists have moved in to fight with the local people and local farmers who have had their land expropriated for the airport work. This account is long, but makes a fascinating read, revealing the passion and determination of those fighting this development - which they see as hugely socially and environmentally harmful.
Click here to view full story...
Blog by Zac Goldsmith: “No ifs, no buts, we need a decision on Heathrow now”
In a blog in the Spectator, Zac writes that waiting 3 years for the Davies Commission to report, and then another 3 years for a lengthy planning process, it could be more like six years before work even begins. He says a delay of 6 years would cause paralysis for business, and also for residents. "The dithering isn’t simply bad for the economy. For voters beneath Heathrow’s flight-path, this ambiguity looks like a hidden green light for expansion." Zac believes that the government’s review will almost certainly rule out Heathrow expansion, as the economic arguments "will not justify subjecting 2 million residents to increased aerial bombardment." And Zac argues that "the arguments being used to bulldoze the government into a U-turn are grossly exaggerated." His solution is for Heathrow to operate much more efficiently, to get rid of the point-to-point flights to places such as Cyprus and Greece, and for a two-hub approach, with Heathrow catering (broadly speaking) for western-facing flights, and Stansted catering for eastern business flights.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow to demand £18bn compensation if a new hub is built
"This is Money" reports that Heathrow would demand compensation of between £11 billion and £18 billion if it was forced to close because a new hub airport was built elsewhere.They say executive sources said it would seek to recoup the net asset value of Heathrow, plus a premium for compulsory closure. Heathrow is 40% owned by the Chinese, Qatari and Singaporean governments and 34% by Ferrovial. BA would also expect compensation for the investment it has put into the airport, it is believed. Willie Walsh has said BA would move to an alternative site only if Heathrow were closed. The prospect of huge compensation bills on top of the £80 billion needed to build a new four-runway hub airport in the Thames estuary would make the cost prohibitive. BA and other airlines have insisted that they would stay at Heathrow if they had a choice. They also say linking Heathrow to either Gatwick or Stansted would not work. And love the 4 runway idea.
Click here to view full story...
Heathrow arguing, as ever, about need for single hub airport, due to benefits of transfer passengers
The Sunday Telegraph [no analysis, poor journalism, just regurgitation of Heathrow's claims] reports that Heathrow's first tranche of evidence to be put before the Airports Commission will say that only a single hub airport allows for a sufficient number of vital transfer passengers. This, of course, is what one would expect them to say, from self interest. The Telegraph says that at present 1 million long-haul business and 1st-class passengers travel through Heathrow every year, which is nearly 85% of all such traffic that leaves the UK. Heathrow relies on transfer passengers from other international destinations to support the number of flights that leave Britain to vital business centres in China and the USA. Heathrow says if there were two hubs (as happens in New York), such as Heathrow and Gatwick, or Heathrow and Stansted, the transfer traffic that makes these flights profitable would be lost. And "The number of destinations served will therefore be cut, at a cost to British businesses." The first stage is for the Airports Commission, under Sir Howard Davies, to decide whether a single hub is necessary - or whether there is enough capacity already and traffic needs to be more efficiently spread between airports.
Click here to view full story...
Two new short briefings from AEF on airport capacity and connectivity – busting some myths
The Aviation Environment Federation (AEF) has recently written two concise briefings, on airport capacity and connectivity. These are timely, since the announcement of the Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies. Even since the announcement the flurry of media stories and aviation industry spin and PR on the issue have continued, effectively giving the very strong and persuasive impression that the UK is badly in need of more airport capacity, and in dire danger of not having sufficiently good connectivity. The AEF says in fact, there is no evidence of a crisis in capacity and no urgent need for new runways. Only about 23% of air travel is for business. The great majority of the growth in demand is for leisure. The Government forecasts show that passenger demand could be almost entirely met with existing infrastructure until 2030. There may well be a benefit for certain airlines or airport operators if passengers change plane at a particular (South East England) airport, but there are no great benefits of larger or expanded hub airports or hub capacity for UK passengers.
Click here to view full story...
Schiphol claims to operate Heathrow’s 3rd runway and provide the UK with global links
Schiphol airport has launching an aggressive advertising campaign, making out that it is offering more than 100 daily flights to the UK, enabling Britons to connect to 275 destinations across the world. Schiphol now serves 23 UK airports in Britain, compared with 12 offered by Gatwick and only 7 by Heathrow. Schiphol has 5 runways – compared with Heathrow's 2 [of course, they cannot all be used at the same time - probably in practice only two are used at once]. Schiphol hopes to have more passengers etc than Heathrow within a decade (don't they all?). The Telegraph is promoting this story, to help pile on pressure for new runways in the south east, and also as part of its continuing campaign against APD - wanting flying to be even more under-taxed than at present. The Telegraph, and Schiphol, are promoting the fear that Heathrow might be overtaken some time, with threats that ...."the Government is outsourcing Britain's airports and jobs to our European competitors."