General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
ABTA 2010 Consumer Trends survey – public not so confused about flying’s carbon emissions
A survey by ABTA reveals the public - in response to their questionnaire - have poor understanding of the actual climate effect of the aviation industry. UK aviation actually produces around 6.3% of UK CO2 emissions, and 13% of UK climate change effect. Globally aviation produces around 4.9% of climate change effect. Air travel can make up a high proportion of any one individual's carbon footprint if they fly a lot. ABTA rather ignores all this.
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Stobart shares slide on profit warning
Part of the Stobart group, Stobart Air, owns Southend airport. The group has announced it had "slightly reduced" its full-year profit forecast as its railway engineering unit suffers from a dramatic fall in spending by the government-owned Network Rail. It was "cautious that 2011 may see volumes affected by the increase in VAT [from 17.5% to 20% in January] and the government spending review".
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Ryanair re-allocates winter capacity; Spain now #1 market with 26% growth; France and UK suffer 20% cuts in flights
Last week’s announcement by Ryanair that it would stop basing aircraft and crews in Marseille from next January (and thus axe 13 routes) is just another example of the airline’s approach to network development. Routes, bases and whole country markets will be closed if the airline perceives that there are better opportunities for profit elsewhere. In Feb 2011 there will be 19% less Ryanair flights in the UK than in Feb 2010, which is about 377 fewer.
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Newcastle Airport given Carbon Trust award for “being green!
Yet another airport award for being "green". The Carbon Trust, in its wisdom, has seen fit to award Newcastle for cutting down a bit on the amount of energy used in the airport itself. Great, and well done to Newcastle. But the "elephant in the room" with airports is the number of planes that the airport encourages to fly in and out of them. The planes have a massive carbon footprint, which these greenwash awards conveniently ignore. Spin. Spin.
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PHILIP HAMMOND BACKS TRAINS OVER PLANES
High-speed trains would replace domestic flights from Heathrow to Manchester and short-haul flights to the Continent under the new vision from Transport Secretary Philip Hammond. Speaking ahead of this week’s comprehensive spending review, he said the decision not to go ahead with a 3rd runway at Heathrow meant a new £33 billion high-speed railway, called HS2, was necessary to alleviate the pressure on Britain’s overcrowded airspace. He believes he can maintain the UK’s international connectivity without expanding Heathrow.
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Domestic flights cut by a quarter
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TCN airspace changes postponed by NATS following drop in flights
NATS has postponed plans for further consultation over changes to airspace north of London - Terminal Control North. The proposals will be incorporated into a wider review of airspace over southern England. The downturn in air traffic levels since the 2008 TCN consultation means there is less urgency on capacity grounds. Current forecasts show that air traffic levels are not expected to return to the peak levels of 2007 until at least 2013/14. (NATS)
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MIT study finds aircraft emissions at cruise altitude contribute to 8,000 premature deaths per year worldwide
The deaths can be attributed to the effects of oxides of nitrogen and sulphur (NOx and SOx) at cruise altitude. Most of these are caused by aircraft over North America and Europe but prevailing winds take them eastwards, where they can form a deadly mix with ammonia released from farming. Nearly half the total premature deaths are in India and China. Till now regulation has only applied to such emissions up to the 3,000-feet level, the take-off and landing cycle.
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Virgin Galactic’s spaceship makes solo flight but without rocket engine
Virgin Galactic's suborbital spaceship, Enterprise, has made its first solo test flight, in California. The spaceship was carried to an altitude of 45,000ft by a plane and then dropped to glide back to the Mojave Air and Space Port. In due course tests on Enterprise's rocket engine will start. Their plan is to take 6 passengers at a time - those prepared to pay $200,000 ( £126,000) on short hops above the atmosphere. Perhaps 500 flights per year.
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IATA Applauds ICAO Agreement on Aviation and Climate Change. – Industry Remains Committed to More Ambitious Goals –
ICAO has been meeting in Montreal at its 37th Assembly of 190 states. They have agreed aspirational goals to stabilize emissions. ICAO agreed on: improving fuel efficiency by 2% annually to 2050; Striving to achieve a collective medium-term aspirational goal of capping aviation’s carbon emissions from 2020; A global CO2 standard for aircraft engines with a target date of 2013. IATA has a goal 1.5% improvement in fuel efficiency to 2020, and the difference in 0.5% is due to improvements to be made to air traffic control.