General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Pro-aviation expansion report produced by All Party Parliamentary Aviation Group
A report has been produced by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Aviation, looking at the effect of APD and the economic impact of aviation in the UK. It said efforts should be made "to ensure the UK retains and grows hub capacity" at Heathrow or a new purpose-built hub airport. It is very much a report from the point of view of the aviation industry. It is important to stress that this is not a formal select committee of Parliament. It is just a group of MPs who are enthusiastic about aviation. It has no official standing. By contrast, the official Parliamentary Select Committee on Transport will start an investigation into aviation in September, and that is the report people will take seriously. One of the APPG report's many pro-aviation-expansion recommendations is that the "Government develop a comprehensive growth strategy for aviation that addresses all “barrier” issues in a coherent and consistent manner." With little regard to environmental constraints on growth.
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Tim Yeo’s intervention strengthens the calls for stricter curbs on select committee chairmen
The ruckus over calls for a 3rd runway at Heathrow has been greeted with disbelief in Whitehall. Tory backbencher Tim Yeo has challenged David Cameron to prove that he is a man, not a mouse, by reneging on his election pledge and ordering an expansion at the airport. The DfT has said that building a runway would take 10 years, so definitely would not "kickstart the economy now.” Tim Yeo's outburst has actually strengthened Justine Greening's position, as Cameron would look "like a mouse" if he now moved her. Tim Yeo's position as Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Committee now looks questionnable, due to potential conflicts of interest - his links with biofuel companies, and vested interest in not wanting Stansted expanded. The Telegraph asks if perhaps the time has come to apply much stricter rules to select committee chairmen.
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Why Tim Yeo is wrong on aviation and the EU ETS
This is an article from BusinessGreen, with a good and clear explanation of why Tim Yeo is utterly wrong with his pronouncements on aviation and the ETS. You would have thought someone who is Chair of the Energy and Climate Change Select Committee should know this. The ETS cannot and will not prevent aviation emissions from rising, because of the current weakness and failures of the ETS, meaning it does not work properly, largely as the carbon price is too low and dubious credits are imported from outside. However, supposing the ETS did work perfectly, it would drive up the cost of flying hugely as permits become scarce and expensive as carbon cuts are harder and harder for other sectors to make. There would then be no need for more runways as demand would fall greatly. So no need for a new Heathrow runway, or a new airport. Unless planes could become virtually zero carbon - of which there is no current prospect.
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Tim Yeo demands PM backs Heathrow 3rd runway and claims it’s a leadership issue
It is August. And the end of the Silly Season, with little hard news. So the media have given a disproportionate amount of coverage and hype to repeating this old one, with a few additions. Writing in the Daily Telegraph, (where else?) Tim Yeo, who now backs Heathrow expansion, urged David Cameron to act or risk "presiding over a dignified slide towards insignificance". The Telegraph etc suggest top ministers are reconsidering their opposition to a Heathrow 3rd runway. However Justine Greening has repeated, yet again, that there was a "political consensus" against a new runway, that the coalition ruled out any expansion before the next election, and that a short runway at Heathrow is not a "solution" to any alleged south east runway capacity shortage in the south east, and that there has been no change in the facts since 2010. Labour also currently opposes the idea of a third runway. Tim Yeo also says, for unaccountable reasons, that the "environmental objections" to the expansion of Heathrow were "disappearing". On the day when the Arctic ice has reached an all time low.
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Birmingham airport promoters boosted by Lib Dem enthusiasm for regional hub airports
Those lobbying for Birmingham Airport to expand to become a regional hub are expecting their campaign will get a major boost when Liberal Democrats urge the Government to block new runways at Heathrow - and expand regional hubs instead at their autumn party conference in September. A motion by Julian Huppert calls for UK aviation to be based on accessibility from north and south; moving non-hub flights away from Heathrow, and making best use of existing airport capacity with improved transport links to Gatwick, Stansted, Luton,Manchester, Birmingham and Edinburgh.
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Airline industry woes, excess European airline seat capacity etc is reducing passenger choices
Air passengers apparently face higher fares, fewer flight choices and crowded aircraft as European carriers trim seating capacity growth or cut routes, as they try to salvage profits and fend off the impact of rising fuel prices. Airlines are curbing the growth of capacity - but it is still growing slightly - and the frequency of some flights to lower costs and not drive away customers already spooked by rising fares. According to the Association of European Airlines, capacity among its member airlines reduced by 4.6% in the first half of 2012 compared with 2011. But there was an increase in seat capacity of almost 23% between 2004 and 2011, driven by new aircraft ordered by airlines when demand was much stronger than it is now. So there is 10 to 20% overcapacity in number of airline seats available in Europe. Some airlines are retiring older aircraft early, delaying delivery of new planes or selling some smaller aircraft to shrink their fleet.
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Poster battle to save Justine Greening from re-shuffle to prevent Heathrow runway expansion
A “Battle for Justine” has erupted before David Cameron’s re-shuffle as west London residents try to save Transport Secretary Justine Greening from being ousted because of her opposition to a third runway at Heathrow. Posters have appeared on London Underground carriages bearing a picture of the Putney MP who made her name as a campaigning opponent of Heathrow expansion, with the caption “I’m backing Justine”. The campaign came as business figures piled pressure on the Prime Minister to sack her to pave the way for the Conservatives to carry out a U-turn on their pledge to block the third runway. Anti-expansion campaigner John Stewart said the posters were clearly an attempt to bolster her position in Cabinet. “This Battle for Justine is really a proxy for the real battle over the third runway,” he said. “She is a popular figure in west London because of the way she campaigned against the third runway, even with Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters.”
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Retaliation On Airline Carbon May Breach Law: says Cambridge researcher
A Cambridge University researcher has given the opinion that nations which retaliate against the EU ETS may fall foul of international trade rules and the WTO. The researcher, who is a lecturer in WTO and international law, said: “If a World Trade Organization member restricts EU flights over its territory, or landing slots for EU flights in its territory, it is likely to violate WTO obligations ensuring non- discriminatory treatment of trade in goods, as well as freedom of transit.” They noticed the irony of Russia, which only joined the WTO yesterday, immediately trying to use trade restrictions for political purposes. The researcher said the WTO permits measures that are necessary “to protect human, animal or plant life or health,” and a successful WTO complaint against the ETS would have to show that the EU could have achieved the same goal another way that is “both reasonably available and less trade- restrictive than the measure adopted. This is notoriously difficult to assess".
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Telegraph speculates on Cabinet reshuffle to move Justine Greening from Transport due to Heathrow
Justine Greening, the Transport Secretary, may be moved to another high profile Cabinet position in a reshuffle as the Prime Minister considers allowing a third runway to be built at Heathrow. Westminster sources said David Cameron is considering moving Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, to the transport department before a major shift in aviation policy - and this may happen in September. Miss Greening, a West London MP, has led the campaign against the expansion of Heathrow and is not likely even to consider allowing a third runway while responsible for the policy. The Lib Dems are also opposed. There has been intense pressure on her, from business, to expand Heathrow. A consultation is expected to be announced in the autumn on Britain's airport capacity. Airport strategy is one of the Government's most controversial areas of policy, plagued by Cabinet infighting. Justine's removal would go down very badly with Heathrow residents.
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Ministers ready for a battle over greenbelt grab as they plan to seize land for housing and new airport
It is likely that Ministers are planning to seize chunks of the green belt to build housing developments and pave the way for a new hub airport, according to the Mail. George Osborne plans to let ministers rather than local councils decide where to build hundreds of thousands of houses by reclassifying them as projects of national importance. and "boost growth". The plans are due to form a centre piece of the Government’s new Bill to boost economic growth next month. There will be strenuous opposition from the National Trust and Campaign to Protect Rural England. The Mail says senior Tories say the party will go into the next election pledging a huge expansion at either Gatwick, Stansted or Luton airports, making one of them a multiple-runway hub airport.