General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Tories unveil their plan for Cardiff Airport to earn money for the Welsh taxpayer
BA staff have been urged to contact employment solicitors hired by Unite, their union, as new working practices come into force. Unite will also begin to ballot its members over proposed strike action within BA, which last week announced plans to merge with Iberia. BA’s 14,000 cabin crew will have to adopt new working practices from today. More than 3,000 crew will move to part-time work and 1,000 will take voluntary redundancy. (Independent)
Click here to view full story...
Air Passenger Duty condemned by 100 countries
The Telegraph is running a campaign to get APD scrapped. A recent conference of the World Tourism Organisation in London said that APD will hurt poorer countries as well as Britain's tour operators. The Dutch introduced a similar tax but retracted it. Thailand has dropped 50% of its airport fees and Egypt is considering similar measures. The Caribbean is particularly badly affected due to its banding. (Telegraph)
Click here to view full story...
BA-Iberia £4.4bn merger creates Europe’s third-largest airline
BA has made its biggest ever strategic move by agreeing a £4.4bn all-share merger with Spain's Iberia to reinforce its position as one of the world's biggest airlines. BA will end up with 56% of the merged group and Iberia, 44%. Both airlines will maintain their national identities, operating companies and brands. Above the 2 operating companies will sit a top company with 7 directors from each airline. It will be registered in Spain. (Telegraph)
Click here to view full story...
Ban on flights over Lake District and Yorkshire Dales is rejected
Campaigners, including CPRE, trying to keep the tranquillity of the National Parks against over-flying are disappointed that the DfT has refused to limit the number of aircraft flying above the parks. The DfT said that tranquillity was a ‘subjective concept’ which would mean different things to different people. Those in favour of over-flying say parks cannot be "pickled in aspic".
Click here to view full story...
Green beliefs win legal protection
Employees who raise concerns about their company's environmental practices won the right to legal redress yesterday after a judge ruled that green beliefs deserved the same protection in the workplace as religious convictions. Environmental views should be protected under the employment equality laws, so workers who are victimised for their strong environmental views such as using aviation to travel to meetings, can bring compensation claims. (Independent)
Click here to view full story...
Campaigners Unite to Stop Airport Growth in Europe
At a major conference in Brussels, campaigners forged new alliances to stop the growth of aviation across Europe. The campaigners from almost a dozen European countries will be co-ordinating their campaigning activities to stop the expansion of airports and the growth of flight numbers in Europe. Those present included many from local airport groups, representatives of national NGOs, and direct action activists such as the UK direct action network, Plane Stupid.
Click here to view full story...
£10 billion a year tax bonus for airlines revealed on eve on increase in Air Passenger Duty
On the eve of the increase in APD, fiercely contested by the aviation industry, AirportWatch, the coalition of campaign organisations opposed to the Government’s airport expansion plans, has released data which shows that aviation continues to receive significant tax-breaks. Treasury figures show the notional benefit that aviation receives by paying no fuel tax and no VAT is up to £10 billion a year. By contrast APD in 2009-10 is expected to raise £1.8 billion.
Click here to view full story...
Green private jets? Don’t make me laugh (Fred Pearce)
Now you can hire your own private plane and bask in the glow of being carbon-neutral at the same time. Several private aviation companies are offering carbon offsets, and claim they are becoming carbon neutral. The cost of those offsets will generally be less than 1% of the hire cost of a plane. The rich will barely even notice the cost, while feeling their consciences salved. These companies are also looking at biofuels. This is unpardonable greenwash.
Click here to view full story...
BAA losses widen on Gatwick sale and falling passenger numbers
BAA's pretax loss widened in the first 9 months of the year - to £784.7m -after losses on the forced sale of Gatwick and falling passenger numbers. The pretax loss was £519.5m over the same period last year. There was an exceptional charge of £261m related to an "increased pension scheme deficit" and a £136m loss on financial instruments. BAA wrote down another £225m on the shortfall between Gatwick's sale price and its valuation. (Guardian)
Click here to view full story...
Many more A380s expected to be using Heathrow in coming decades
London Heathrow has said it is expecting the number of A380s to be using the airport to triple to 30 by 2020 as slot constraints impact on the fleet choices being made by its resident airlines. More airlines will use the A380 on existing routes to maximise capacity. Emirates, Malaysia Airlines, Qantas and Singapore currently operate the A380 from Heathrow, with Thai rumoured to be considering a daily Bangkok service in 2013 and BA and Virgin Atlantic receiving their first A380s next year. There are currently the nine A380s operating from Heathrow making over 15,000 flights to and from the airport. Heathrow has the capacity to deal with the 80 metre wingspan. However, though theoretically the A380 can carry about 850 passengers, all in economy class, in effect they are only configured by the airlines to take 407 - 538 depending on the airline. Planes tend to have 8 - 10 first class seats, and 70 - 80 business class or equivalent. So they are not as fuel efficient per passenger as the industry make out. Heathrow has a lot of spare terminal capacity. It could accommodate at least another 20 million passengers a year.