AirportWatch | General News

Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.

Aviation industry launches “Fair Tax on Flying” campaign, wanting yet more tax concessions

A new aviation industry (an alliance of over 25 airlines, airports, tour operators, destinations and trade associations) campaign, Fair Tax on Flying, launches today. It is calling on the chancellor to stop a planned rise in aviation taxes. The industry says APD puts the UK at a competitive disadvantage when compared with our European neighbours and punishes UK holidaymakers and business travellers unfairly. They omit to mention that aviation pays no fuel tax and no VAT.

Advertising watchdog finds Easyjet ad claming to be greener than Jet2 was misleading

Easyjet plans to appeal against a ruling from the Advertising Standards Agency that it misrepresented its green credentials. The ASA that the airline had misled the public with an advert that appeared in the Newcastle press in 2007. In the ad, Easyjet claimed its fleet was greener than that of rival airline Jet2, because its aircraft were younger. The ASA said the age of the planes was not the only criterion, and objective verification was needed.

Work on hydrogen for aircraft fuel progresses through EADS and Glasgow university

EADS, the European aerospace giant, is collaborating with British universities on hydrogen fuel cells that could power a new generation of aircraft and cars. Glasgow researchers are working on a new solid-state storage system for hydrogen which would not require so much space, nor be too heavy. To enable this, researchers are using nanotechnology to alter the design and material composition of a storage tank to make it more efficient.

Report criticises the UK over its refusal to earmark EU ETS carbon revenues for financing green projects

Aviation will join the EU ETS in 2012. Despite EC proposals that at least half of auction revenues should be used to help reduce greenhouse gases, develop renewable energies and clean technologies, and shift to low-emission forms of transport, the UK has refused to hypothecate revenues. An attempt by the European Parliament to force EU member states to comply when passing the Aviation EU ETS directive was rejected by EU Council ministers.

China plans airport building spree – up to a total of 220 airports

China will build another 45 airports over the next 5 years. Li Jiaxing, the head of the Civil Aviation Administration of China, said that the new investments would take the total number of airports in the country to 220, even though most of the existing airports were losing money. 130 of the country’s 175 existing airports were currently lossmaking, with the combined loss amounting to Rmb1.68bn. The rapid expansion in China’s high-speed rail network has also raised questions about over-investment

Empty Ciudad Real airport – a silent witness to Spanish boom

Ciudad Real airport, 140 miles south of Madrid, is one of the country’s largest and most modern international airports. The site is next to a town of just 72,000 people on the sparsely populated Castilian plain. It has become a monument to the financial folly born of the property boom and exacerbated by regional politics. Few flights use it now. The airport is in bankruptcy proceedings owing vast sums, including publicly funded infrastructure

Scottish government says it will seek powers if re-elected to cut APD to help boost flights

Alex Salmond has said his SNP will seek powers to reduce UK Air Passenger Duty on Scottish air travellers if re-elected to office in parliamentary elections in May. He believes cutting APD would not impact on Scotland’s climate change goals as having more direct flights abroad would reduce the need to travel and connect through Heathrow and would be cost neutral as lost tax revenue would be made up for by the increased number of flights.

BAA reduces losses in 2010 as it hopes passenger traffic returning

BAA said it delivered a "robust" financial performance in 2010 despite disruption caused by volcanic ash, strikes and snow. It reported a 9% rise in underlying earnings to £966.9m and said losses including one-off items narrowed to £316.6m from the £821.9m recorded a year earlier. BAA said with improved passenger growth at Heathrow over the 2nd half of 2010, there would be an increase in profitability this year with additional investment in facilities.

BAA owner Ferrovial returns to profit after disposals

Ferrovial announced a net profit for 2010 of €2.2bn (£1.8bn) driven by gains it made on asset sales. However, a €734m provision against the fall in value of BAA because of forced sales of UK airports meant the profit was lower than expected. Ferrovial wants to sell a 10% stake, worth about €200m, in BAA. This would take Ferrovial's holding in BAA, which it bought at the height of the credit boom, below 50%

Oil price fueling fears for airlines

Nobody is prepared to say Saudi Arabia will be immune to the wave of unrest in the middle east. In 2010, Brent Crude averaged about $80 per barrel. If prices remain as they are now in 2011, the industry's fuel bill will jump perhaps $22 billion, wiping out last year's record $15.1 billion industry profit. For every dollar increase in the average price of a barrel of oil over the year, airlines have to recover an additional $1.6 billion in costs.

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