General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Ferrovial to sell its 25% stake in Heathrow for $3 billion to Ardian (15%) and Saudi Arabia’s PIF (10%)
Infrastructure giant Ferrovial has reached an agreement with two different buyers to sell its entire 25% stake in Britain's busiest airport, Heathrow, for £2.37 billion ($3.01 billion) the company said in a statement on Tuesday. Ferrovial said the buyers for the stake in FGP Topco - the parent company of Heathrow Airport Holdings Ltd - were private equity fund Ardian and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF). Ardian would acquire a 15% stake and PIF a 10% stake. The transaction is subject to regulatory conditions and must comply with the right of first offer and full tag-along rights, which may be exercised by the other FGP Topco shareholders, Ferrovial added. Ferrovial expects to complete the sale by mid-2024. Ferrovial also has a 50% stake in three other British hubs: Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton. It also has a 49% stake in the new Terminal One at New York City's JFK airport.
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Virgin “SAF” flight – it’s just unrealistic aviation hype to delay real emissions cuts
There is to be a transatlantic flight by Virgin Atlantic, which is claimed to be fuelled 100% by so called "sustainable" aviation fuels (SAF). It is a publicity stunt, to attempt to persuade government, and the flying public, that in future flying can be low carbon - allegedly "guilt free". But there is never going to be enough genuinely low-carbon fuel for more than a tiny % of flights. Jet fuels produced by taking agricultural land are recognised as not acceptable. The only fuels that might justify the term "sustainable", e-fuels, would have to be made from hydrogen, produced from surplus renewably generated electricity, combined with CO2 captured from the air, processed using renewably generated electricity. When the fuel is burned in a jet engine, it produces CO2 in just the same way as kerosene. A huge amount of low carbon electricity would be needed to produce e-fuels, and that would far more effectively be used for terrestrial demand - heating, vehicles etc. The industry claims SAF can reduce the emission of CO2 overall by (up to) 70% compared to kerosene, depending on the fuel and several variables. There is a real danger that the SAF hype being promoted by airlines and governments will reduce pressure for a reduction in flying, which is the only real way to cut aviation CO2. Read the new report by AEF, "Sustainable Aviation Fuels - Hope or Hype?"
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Horsham MP, Jeremy Quinn, opposed to Gatwick expansion, partly due to road congestion and hospital access
In his response to the Planning Inspectorate’s (PI's) call for submissions on Gatwick’s Development Consent Order (DCO) application, Jeremy Quin, MP for Horsham, has said he cannot support the application in its current form. He remains deeply concerned with Gatwick’s failure to engage adequately with local councils and about the impact of potential expansion on local housing and services. He previously spearheaded a letter from local MPs asking Gatwick to delay their submission until they provided local councils with detailed analysis of the impact on the local environment, residents and infrastructure. There would be many more flights, a need for more housing, and millions more car journeys by staff and passengers. “Journey times to A&E are already at the absolute limit of acceptability. I do not want many Horsham residents to have to navigate vastly increased congestion and 14 years of construction-related delays simply to reach their local hospital. ... were Gatwick’s plans to proceed this would inevitably lead to slower journey times and increased demand, in that context the arguments in favour of local hospital provision need to be revisited.”
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Role of the advertising industry in promoting high carbon lifestyle choices
Some quotes from an article about advertising and flying: "More than half of Delta Air Lines’ approximately $151m ad spend from October 2022 to October 2023, for example, was spent advertising long-haul flights, encouraging travellers to rack up air miles to use for more travel, and pushing upgrades to premium classes, although the airline also spent tens of millions of dollars to advertise its commitment to “sustainable aviation fuels”. Qatar Airways, meanwhile, directed more than 85% of its advertising spend during the same year into marketing business class and long-haul flights exclusively. Short-haul flights are not necessarily environmentally preferable, particularly flights that could be replaced by a rail trip; they emit more carbon dioxide per kilometre than long-haul flights, making them more carbon intensive. However, long-haul flights emit more in total; they account for only 6% of total flights, yet are responsible for 51% of air travel emissions." See the whole article.
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Research paper from Chatham house suggests way to fairly reduce air travel demand
A new research paper, from Chatham House, sets out how UK demand for air travel could be managed, and reduced to a level that might be compatible with climate targets. At the current level of air travel demand (that the government is unwilling to challenge) the aviation sector will far exceed its target emissions, out to 2050. The Chatham house paper suggests that "in the UK the top 20% of earners fly 5 times more often than the poorest 20%. It may be possible to achieve a 36% reduction in demand by 2030 if a future demand-management policy shifted behaviour so that most people who currently take more than one return flight per year reduced that number by one return flight and took no more than 4. This would leave the 77% of the UK population who currently take no more than one return flight unaffected. This is a moderate level of behaviour change... affecting only a small proportion of people with a high consumption of flights. Under the frequent flyer levy proposal, produced by the New Economics Foundation and climate charity Possible in 2021, leisure passengers would be charged no frequent flyer levy on their first return flight, increasing to an indicative figure of £585 on their 10th flight of the year.
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France and Kenya set to launch Cop28 coalition for global taxes, including aviation, to fund climate action
The taskforce, set to be launched at Cop28, will consider the feasibility of levies on shipping, aviation, financial transactions and fossil fuels. The aim is to push for new ways to raise more money for climate action. The governments are in advanced discussions with a handful of European and Global South countries that could join the coalition in Dubai. France’s development minister said the goal is to agree on specific proposals by Cop30, in two years’ time. Those could then be negotiated in relevant international institutions, like the OECD, the UN or the G20. Many country leaders and climate experts see taxes as among the most promising so-called innovative sources of finance that could help plug the large gap in the provision of climate funding to vulnerable countries. Countries are not going to provide the funds demanded for "loss and damage" and the Green Climate Fund, from existing tax revenues, so these new ones are needed. Taxes on fossil fuel extraction and the emissions of the shipping industry could raise up to $210 billion and $60 billion a year respectively, according to a recent study - and aviation between $4 and $150 per year. But it could take years to get the details agreed, with different levies in different countries - let alone enforcement.
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More night train services are starting up in Europe, so people can avoid flying
At their best, fares for night trains can be good value, combining the cost of a bed for the night and hundreds of miles of travel, but prices quickly ramp up on busy routes, often putting them out of reach for most travelers. Wherever they run, night trains are complicated, labor intensive and expensive to operate – one of the major reasons they went into decline in the first place. Until now, the quality of accommodation has been patchy, ranging from modern and comfortable to basic and outdated. But there is now a renaissance in Europe. Spreading quickly from Scandinavia, the flygskam (flight shame) phenomenon is encouraging climate-conscious travelers to seek alternatives to short-haul air travel. Led by Austrian Federal Railways’ (ÖBB) “Nightjet” network, overnight links between major European cities have been restored and expanded over the last few years. There are now also small one-person "pods" on some trains. Working with Swiss Federal Railways and Germany’s Deutsche Bahn, ÖBB has reinvigorated overnight routes linking main hubs in Vienna and Zürich with cities in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic and, more recently, Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam. See full article.
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Denmark is proposing a small tax on all flights, half the revenue to produce SAF and half for pensions
Denmark has announced a new proposal to implement a “green tax” on all flights in an effort to fund a sustainable-energy transition for its domestic air travel. The plan is to charge passengers (in Danish krones) around $9 for flights within Europe, $35 for medium-distance flights and $56 for long-distance flights by 2030. The policy would come into effect at the start of 2025. The tax might raise 1.2 billion krones (about €160 million) per year, and it is alleged this would help airlines to fuel all domestic flights (Denmark is a small country ...) with so-called Sustainable Jet Fuel by 2030. Part of the revenue would support pension increases for elderly citizens. Denmark's Minister for Climate, Energy and Utilities said “The flight sector in Denmark must — as all other sectors — lower its carbon footprint and get on board a green future. ” Initiatives to lessen air travel are generally more popular in Europe than in the US, where lack of government initiative and there is less good alternative high-speed travel infrastructure. Magdalena Heuwieser, co-founder of the Stay Grounded network, said Denmark has enough rail connections to ban all domestic flights, and that would be much more sustainable than a push for SAF.
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Dutch government scraps plan to cap flights at Schiphol next year
Facing pressure from the US government and the EU, the Dutch government has given up on a plan to cap the maximum number of flights at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport next summer, calling the decision "a bitter pill". This a win for the airlines, that had opposed the cap - and a loss for environmental and resident groups living near Schiphol that had supported the cap. There is a national election on November 22nd, so the attitude of the next government might differ. The plan to cap the number of flights at Schiphol at around 450,000 flights, or 10% below 2019 levels, had been primarily driven by the desire to cut noise pollution. It had also been cheered by environmentalists as needed to reduce carbon dioxide and NOx emissions. The cuts were starting to hit airlines, having to reduce the number of Schiphol flights, so losing money. So the US government threatened retaliation if the Dutch went ahead with the plan, which the US said violated the US-EU Air Transport Agreement. The cap will now await a Supreme Court ruling and further European Commission feedback expected next year. Airlines said they wanted to "fly more quietly and sustainably" without cutting numbers ....
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Stansted Airport Watch winding down – to become a Trust, the SAW Foundation
Stansted Airport Watch (‘SAW’) has announced its intention to convert into a Trust Fund to be known as the Stansted Airport Watch Foundation (‘the SAW Foundation’). The proposal will be put to a Special General Meeting (’SGM’) of its members later in November and, in accordance with the SAW Constitution, will require a two-thirds majority of the members present to be approved. SAW Chairman Brian Ross explained the reasoning behind the proposal: “Some of the most experienced members of SAW Executive Committee have recently retired and others, including myself, have signalled their intention to retire in the near future, after having given more than 20 years’ voluntary service to the campaign. As they say, none of us are getting any younger!” The Foundation will not be a member organisation. All of SAW’s assets would be transferred to the SAW Foundation. The intention would be to replace the initial trustees, continuing from SAW, with representatives from local district, town and parish councils - to ensure that there is awareness of local environmental impacts of the airport.