General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Ryanair plans to scrap toilets to make room for more passengers on flights
Ryanair officials want to remove 2 or 3 toilets on each of the budget airline's planes to make room for up to 6 extra seats and cut costs. They are proposing only one lavatory on its aircraft in order to reduce a typical £40 budget ticket by about £2. Under the plans announced yesterday, up to 200 passengers and six crew would be forced to share toilets, which would inevitably lead to long queues or even embarrassing accidents. Some flights are up to 4 hours +
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BAA airports passengers up 1% in September compared to last year. Heathrow up 1.4%
September Heathrow pax up 1.4%. Stansted down 4%. Edinburgh up 3%. Glasgow up 3.2%. Domestic pax down -7.2%. Over the past 12 months, Oct 2010 to Sept 2011 total BAA pax up 3.3%. Heathrow pax up 4.8%. Stansted down - 3.2%. Edinburgh up 6.1%. Glasgow up 2.5%. Air transport movements this September were unchanged in September, giving a slightly higher average load factor. Over the past 12 months, ATMs rose 1.9% compared to the 3.3% rise in passengers.
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Virgin plans for new aviation fuel made from waste gas from steel production
Virgin Atlantic is to develop a low carbon aviation fuel, which it hope will have half the carbon footprint of the standard fossil fuel alternative. It is developing the fuel with LanzaTech and claims it is a breakthrough. The fuel will use waste gases from industrial steel production which will be captured, and chemically converted (Fischer Tropsch) using Swedish Biofuels technology for use as a jet fuel. The gas otherwise would be burnt/vented to produce CO2.
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Has Green Become the New Red in America? – by John Stewart
John was denied entrance into the USA on 29th September, after arrival at New York JFK airport, and six hours of questionning by the FBI, the American Secret Service and immigration officials. He asks "Just why are the authorities so keen to silence environmentalists?" The Bush Administration promoted the practice of excluding people from the US because of their beliefs: ideological exclusion. Has green become the new red, with environmentalists targetted?
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Without a new airport, British businesses will be left behind – says Boris
Boris writes in the Telegraph that "We cannot go on as we are, with Heathrow as the UK's major hub airport. The place is bursting at the seams." "China's biggest airline, China Southern, does not serve the UK because there aren't enough slots at Heathrow". "Every week, there are 17,500 seats on planes bound for mainland China from Frankfurt; 15,000 on planes from Paris; 11,000 from Amsterdam and only 9,000 from Heathrow." And he now supports "Heathwick".
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Barred from America – John Stewart on US refusal to allow him to visit America
John Stewart, Chair of AirportWatch and of HACAN, was denied entry to the USA on 29th September, though no reason was given and he qualified for entry under the US visa waiver scheme. John questions how a a mysterious call was made by some person or some organisation which had access to the flight's passenger list, alleging that he had made threats to the President; a call that ensured that he would be subject to detailed questioning at JFK.
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European Court’s Preliminary Opinion Supports Legality of EU Law That Curbs Aviation Pollution
A transatlantic coalition of environmental groups applauded today’s European Court of Justice’s Advocate General’s preliminary opinion, which supports Europe’s right to tackle carbon emissions from airlines that use its airports. The coalition said the preliminary opinion was very encouraging. The Court is expected to hand down its final opinion in early 2012. The opinion says that airlines excluded from the ETS would have an unjustfied competitive advantage.
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European Court of Justice rules that EU ETS is legal and does not infringe sovereignty
The European Court of Justice has ruled that the EU ETS is compatible with international law. The ETS does not infringe the sovereignty of other States and is compatible with the relevant international agreements. The ATA, some US airlines, supported by IATA and many others brought a case before a UK court, which had in turn asked the EU court whether this extension of the ETS is valid in light of a number of international agreements.The opinion is not binding.
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Non EU countries and airlines continue to warn of retaliatory action against EU ETS
IATA says there is a risk that countries outside the EU could take retaliatory action against the EU's ETS. On 6th October an advocate general to the European Court of Justice will issue an opinion on a request by US airlines for non-European carriers to be excluded from the ETS. This should give a steer on the subsequent ruling by the ECJ, which the EC is confident will side with the EU rather than the US airlines. They want a scheme run through ICAO.
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IATA global passenger data for August show ‘Air traffic demand slowing up’
IATA figures show the rise in global air passenger demand is slowing down. Demand grew in August by 4.5% compared to Aug 2010. This is down 1.6% compared to the rise in July. Compared to July, August showed a total passenger drop of 1.6%, including a 1.8% fall in interntional markets. Passenger capacity dropped by 1.3%. European airlines showed the highest growth in August, up 7.9% compared to Aug 2010, an 8.2% increase in capacity and 83.9% load factor.