General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Edinburgh Airport sold to Global Infrastructure Partnership for £807m
A deal has been struck to sell Edinburgh Airport to the owner of Gatwick and London City airports for £807m. GIP has beaten a consortium led by another infrastructure investor, JP Morgan Asset Management. The sale price, slightly more than expected, is payable in full at closing of the deal, expected in May. It is thought that GIP intends to improve the speed at which passengers move through the airport at check-in, security and baggage handling, and to link the airport with new routes. Its investment pattern is to sell the asset on after about 7 years. GIP is said to have improved the passenger experience at Gatwick. Edinburgh airport handled 9.5m passengers last year, caters for about 40 airlines, serves more than 100 destinations and currently generates around £50m EBITDA annually.
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Kehoe says BAA claims are a con, and Chinese companies are happy to fly to Birmingham, bypassing Heathrow
We have heard many aviation lobbyists claiming that if business people cannot get direct flights from Heathrow to a multitude of destinations, Britain's economy is doomed. Now Paul Kehoe, CEO of Birmingham airport, publicly disagrees, wanting to persuade those in power that flights to or from Birmingham will be quite acceptable to commerce, and can bypass Heathrow. And Birmingham gets the profit. He says BAA is "trying to conflate the wider British economic interest with the interests of Heathrow". Kehoe says the claims that Britain's economy requires new runways in the south-east are a "con" that an industry dominated by BAA will not question. He says he was in Chengdu recently, talking to Chinese airlines that were considering any entry point into the UK. Kehoe says the Chinese he had spoken to would be happy to come to Birmingham: "they see the UK as an important market and don't care how they get there." So lots of in-fighting within the industry, like dogs over a bone ... They all want the money ...
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BA-owner IAG completes BMI takeover – doubts it can sell BMI Baby and BMI Regional
IAG has completed the take over of Bmi. The main BMI airline is to be integrated with BA, but IAG reiterated that it did not intend to keep the BMI Baby and BMI Regional businesses. IAG is receiving a "significant price reduction" on the agreed £172.5m purchase price for taking the BMI Baby and BMI regional airlines on. BMI is estimated to be losing about £3m a week. The deal was cleared by the European Commission last month on certain conditions, including that 14 slots at Heathrow airport were released. A Scottish consortium called Granite may buy the regional part of Bmi, for flights to and from Scotland, and perhaps saving some 400 jobs.
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London Mayoral candidate, Siobhan Benita, candidate pressing for 3rd Heathrow runway (with Michael Portillo’s backing)
Siobhan Benita is the only mayoral candidate to be pressing for a 3rd Heathrow runway. She says "We will scrap the £60bn Boris Island vanity project and instead support the expansion of Heathrow airport, while maintaining strict limits on sound and emissions" and "I absolutely understand that people are worried about noise levels and I would call on the aviation industry to produce a 10-year roadmap for aircraft noise reduction. With quieter and cleaner aircraft becoming more commonplace, the industry can do much more to reduce noise and emission levels in the coming years" Michael Portillo gives her his backing. He thinks a third runway for Heathrow airport is fundamentally important for the capital and "I can't understand any candidate presenting himself or herself without making such a commitment".
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London Gateway port development – to open in 2013 – a few miles west of Southend
Opening in the fourth quarter of 2013, London Gateway is set to become the premier UK logistics centre. When fully developed London Gateway port will handle 3.5 million TEU (twenty-foot equivalent container units) annually and the adjacent logistics park will be the largest in Europe. It is about 4 miles south of Basildon and about 7 miles west of Southend on Sea. DP World is a company based in Dubai. There is likely to be a connection between Stobart buying Southend airport, and the new mega-port close by.
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West Sussex study shows personal flights the largest single component of carbon footprint
West Sussex County Council have done an analysis of their carbon emissions, to understand individual emissions and help communities to change their lifestyles, consumption etc. The consumption-based carbon footprint for West Sussex residents broken down into sixteen specific segments shows that the largest single component is personal flights, at 13%. This comes higher even than food and drink (retail) at 12%. And then at 10% each are household fuel, and domestic vehicle fuel. Followed by other non food shopping at 9% and then household electricity at 7% - with other sectors at lower figures. Remarkable that the flights component is so very high. For the Lake District, the proportion of emissions from foreign flights by visitors to the Lake District was a third of the total budget—yet of the 16 million visitors a year, only 10% come from abroad".
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IATA wants government help for the future growth of aviation
IATA has said that a significant decline in global airline profitability, or even losses, look inevitable for 2008 as the industry struggles with sky-high fuel prices. Director General Giovanni Bisignani forecast industry losses of USD$2.3 billion in 2008 if the average price of a barrel of Brent oil remained at USD$107 for the rest of the year. Bisignani said traffic growth in the industry would at best be 3.9% this year. (Reuters)
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A flying feud: BA boss and Branson go to war
The heads of BA and Virgin hate each other, and always have - even more since 2006 when Virgin reported on BA to the UK competition authorities for price fixing. They have been attacking each other for years, and the sparring between two rather unedifying personalities, over ways in which to more effectively damage the climate through increasing air travel, is distasteful. But this article in the Independent goes through their mutual hostility and the past of their squabbles.....
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Theresa Villiers shuts door on third runway at Heathrow
Ms Villiers stressed at an aviation conference in London that, although there were divergences of opinion within the Coalition on aviation policy, the Government would look at all options for increasing capacity in the South East “with the exception of a third runway at Heathrow”. She said “The Coalition has always been clear that its doesn’t support a 3rd runway at Heathrow - one of the very first acts as government was to confirm that.” And “The quality of life aspect of a 3rd runway with up to 22,000 more flights over London every year would be massive and there’s no technological solution in sight to ensure planes become quiet enough, quickly enough to make this burden in any way tolerable. So we need another solution.” This could also potentially put the Government on a legal collision course with BAA, which cautioned it could go down the route of a judicial review if Heathrow was the one option barred from the public inquiry into future hub capacity.
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Aviation minister Theresa Villiers defends Heathrow No 3rd runway policy
Theresa, speaking at an aviation conference in London, said a new third runway at Heathrow would have a "massive" impact on the quality of lives of residents near the airport. She stressed the coalition Government had "always been clear" that it did not support a third runway at Heathrow. Instead, she said "another solution" to south east England airport capacity was needed. At the conference, Colin Matthews produced figures showing that foreign airlines were shunning Heathrow because of capacity constraints at the airport. Mrs Villiers said: "The coalition has always been clear that it does not support a third runway at Heathrow. One of its very first acts as a Government was to confirm this. Heathrow is unique in Europe in terms of the magnitude of the noise impact it has on densely populated areas." She also said that "arguably the most well-connected city in the world, with its airports providing direct links to around 350 international destinations".