General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Planes fly empty to keep value take-off slots at Heathrow
Bmi, Britain's third largest airline, will fly near-empty "ghost flights" in order to keep valuable take-off and landing slots at Heathrow. Government "use-it-or-lose-it" rules mean airlines must use 80% of their scheduled slots, or forfeit them. The airline would prefer to cancel uneconomic flights, especially midday flights from London to Scotland and northern England, but were forced to fly 80% the routes to avoid losing the slots. (Telegraph)
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Aer Lingus confirms George Best Belfast City Airport switch
Aer Lingus has confirmed it is switching its operations from Belfast International Airport to George Best Belfast City Airport in the autumn. The airline said there would be 3 flights daily in each direction, to both London Heathrow and Gatwick. From the end of March 2013, Aer Lingus will also operate daily flights to Malaga and Faro. Belfast International Airport said it was working to fill the "void". The airline's chief executive said "George Best Belfast City Airport delivers a compelling location and a strong history of business flying." Belfast International Airport said Aer Lingus had been offered "an implausibly low deal on charges by the airport to move there, and that they aspire to charging higher fares and commanding stronger yields as a result of flying from the City Airport."
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HACAN: Aviation consultation document gives no hope for backers of Heathrow 3rd runway
HACAN, the community group that campaigns against excessive aircraft noise generated by Heathrow, says today's consultation on the government's draft aviation strategy, gives no hope to the backers of a third Heathrow runway. The consultation document restates that it is not Government policy to expand Heathrow, and building a new runway would be politically very difficult and would "not be possible for any government to deliver new capacity, however hard some shout for it”. The government's decision on Heathrow is largely due to concern about the scale of the noise impacts of the airport. Speaking of the delay to the airport capacity part of the DfT consultation, John Stewart (Chair of Hacan) said "in many ways today’s consultation paper is the more important as it lays out the overall policy framework. This policy consultation may be less sexy than expected one about new runways but it is the more important.”
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The load factor on BA's aircraft fell 3.8% last month, to 76.7%. That means nearly 24% of seats are now empty on BA flights. Higher air fares and a slowing economy led to 87,000 fewer passengers using BA last month than the same month in 2007. In an attempt to reduce costs further BA, American and Iberia are expected to try to merge their operations this month. June revenue per passenger km fell by 3.7 %. (Times)
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Air France considers high-speed rail routes
Air France is holding talks about a joint venture that could see some of its short-haul routes operated by trains and considerably increase competition for continental Europe's mainly state-owned high-speed train operators. Air France is speaking to Paris-based Veolia Transport about the venture. The services are likely to be solely international, and this would be the first time an airline has commissioned its own high-speed trains. (FT)
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EasyJet starts UK newspaper campaign to press for a fairer and greener air tax to replace APD
easyJet is taking out advertisements in the UK national newspapers calling on the UK government to make its air tax greener - and also free of subsidies to airlines with transfer passengers. It largely supports plans to replace the current APD with a flight-based tax based on the flight distance. It accuses other airlines with older, long-haul aircraft flying from hubs of "secretly" lobbying government to have transfer passengers exempted. (Gereenair)
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NATS flight stack plans ‘must be thrown out’
Campaigners and MPs have upped the pressure on airspace bosses to rethink plans to move a flight stack over rural Suffolk. Today, the debate reaches the House of Commons where MP Richard Spring will discuss the proposals while fellow MP David Ruffley met NATS bosses last night to implore them to move the flight stack to over the North Sea. (EADT)
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Single sky wins support amid airline fears over ETS (Single European Sky)
Countries would have to surrender sovereignty over their national airspace in favour of a European air-traffic management system by 2012, according to proposals presented in Brussels yesterday. Regulations adopted in March 2004, aimed at creating a 'Single European Sky' (SES) by reforming the current Air Traffic Management system. The European sky remains broadly divided into 27 pieces of airspace under the control of national governments. (Euractiv)
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EU seeks to overhaul air traffic control
Faced with congested skies, airport delays and growing carbon emissions from aircraft, the European Union will this week seek to overhaul its aviation management system in a move that could save €2 billion to €3 billion in fuel costs and cut CO2 output by up to 16 million tons a year. Air traffic control in Europe is currently divided into 650 units administered from 60 air traffic control centers in the 27 nations. (International Herald Tribune)
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New Study: High Speed Rail – a real alternative to expansion at Heathrow
A new study has found that investment in high-speed rail could be a viable alternative to the expansion of Heathrow. The study, commission by the Rail and Maritime Union (RMT), said the controversial plans to expand Heathrow would be "unnecessary" if there was serious investment in rail. Network Rail has announced that it is looking seriously at plans to build new high-speed lines across the UK. (RMT