General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Atkins to assess plans for electric air taxis in South West England, with Bristol airport involved
Atkins will work with Vertical Aerospace and the West of England Combined Authority to assess the feasibility of introducing electric air taxis in the area. The project was awarded partial funding of £2.5 million through the government’s Future of Flight Challenge, "which was created to find innovative methods of achieving greener air transport, finding new ways to travel, increasing mobility, improving connectivity and reducing congestion." The feasibility study is expected to take 18 months, and will involve an assessment of the demand for air taxi services in the South West; development of use cases for the technology; and evaluate the integration and impact on the wider transportation network, including the region’s airports, as well as the benefits to cities and residents. It will establish viable markets and businesses cases for these services and seek to understand public perceptions and attitudes to electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft." One of the British Government’s innovation agencies, Connected Places Catapult, will lead the research into public perception of air taxis, demand etc. Bristol Airport will be acting as the principal support airport.
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CORSIA: World’s biggest plan to make flying green ‘too broken to fix’
So far the only scheme that might be used globally, to try to reduce the CO2 emissions of aviation, is the UN's CORSIA. But it is wholly inadequate for the task. Now an assessment by the German DW shows that the scheme would not even require airlines to offset their CO2 emissions for another 6 years, and the cost will be much to small to have any deterrent effect. The CORSIA scheme finally launched this month, with the aim of stopping the total emissions of aviation from rising about their level in 2019. Critics say the scheme is unambitious and ineffective. The baseline above which offsets must be paid is so high that it will take until 2026 before any airline has to purchase any. Magdalena Heuwieser, co-founder of the Stay Grounded activist group: "CORSIA is a wreck that is too broken to fix. It is even worse than doing nothing because it distracts from real solutions." That is because it could delay investments in the technologies needed to decarbonise flights. A lot of smaller countries, with new aviation sectors, and not required to be part of CORSIA. Many large countries might join, on a voluntary basis, before 2027. Others will only join then.
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East Midlands Airport shifted record volumes of freight for online shopping in the Christmas period
Although passenger flights are down 90%, East Midland airport has had more in cargo-only planes in the run-up to Christmas. In December, it handling 46,320 tonnes of goods, up on the previous record set in November. A rise in online shoppers helped drive unprecedented air and rail shipments through and around the airport, which is a hub for dedicated express freight operators such as DHL, UPS, FedEx and the Royal Mail. Expansion within the airport has been coupled with the growth of SEGRO’s vast East Midlands Gateway distribution park to the north and the new Maritime Rail Freight Interchange linking the park to the rail network. The SEGRO site close to Junction 24 of the M1, is already home to Amazon, XPO logistics (working for Nestlé), Shop Direct, Kuehne & Nagel and Games Workshop. Mars UK recently announced an agreement with DHL for a big new warehouse at the huge site. An airport manager said they had been processing up to 400 vehicles every 24 hours, "keeping customer goods flowing around the UK and rest of the world."
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Gatwick increased its Government borrowing by £75m to shore up its finances during the Covid period
Gatwick has increased its Government borrowing by £75 million, trying to shore up its finances during the extended Covid travel reduction. It is thought that Gatwick has also borrowed £250 million under the Bank of England's Covid Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) scheme. Gatwick applied to access the CCFF in August, saying at the time it was a contingency measure and hoped not to touch the money, but now it needs the £250 million. It has 12 months to repay it. Gatwick still has the option of accessing a further £50 million under its £300million CCFF facility. The airport had a £344 million pre-tax loss for the six months to June 2020. During 2020 its number of passenger numbers fell by about 80%. It is owned by France's VINCI Airports and $71billion fund GIP, which should be able to provide money Gatwick needs. Local community group GACC says, despite the airport's dire financial state, it is still finding money to spend on expansion plans which will have major adverse consequences for local residents & would also fly in the face of climate change concerns.
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Crowding, no social distancing, potential “superspreader” events at Heathrow terminal
Passengers at Heathrow have been publicising just how much risk there is of spreading Covid at the airport. There are huge queues, with hundreds of people waiting for considerable times, close together in areas with inadequate ventilation. Heathrow says the additional Covid checks for arriving passengers have resulted in the long queues. It is possible these crowded times in Heathrow terminals are “superspreading” events. An image of a packed queue at Terminal 2 shared on social media went viral, with many questioning where the passengers have been travelling from (far too many on inessential leisure trips) and why they did not appear to be following social distancing rules. A spokesperson for Heathrow said the airport has always maintained that social distancing is not possible at the airport and face coverings were mandated for all passengers aged 11 and above. One passenger said: “Isn’t the UK in lockdown? Seeing this I would say not, as it looks like everybody is off on their essential travel!” All international arrivals, including UK nationals, have to show proof of a negative Covid-19 test taken within 72 hours before departure (ie. wholly inadequate protection for the UK).
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Dublin Airport wants permission to amend planning conditions for more night period flights
Dublin airport is constructing a new runway, which is expected to open in 2022. It had been intended to open in 2020. The current conditions would limit the use of the new northern runway between 11pm and 7am, and also place an overall limit of 65 aircraft movements across the entire airport during those hours. Now the Dublin Airport operator, DAA, has submitted an application to Fingal County Council for permission to amend two planning conditions that are due to apply to the operation of the new north runway and the overall runway system at Dublin Airport when the new north runway begins operations. It says the conditions are too "onerous" now wants to be able to operate a noise quota system between 11.30pm and 6am, ie. half an hour later into the night, and an hour earlier in the morning. Flights would operate for longer times than the quota period. The DAA says the new north runway would only be used between 6am and midnight, (ie. 2 hours longer than the 7am to 11pm originally) and it says the overall effects of nighttime aircraft noise are "less than envisaged under the planning permission granted in 2007, and do not exceed those in 2018." The DAA is very keen to have flights between 6am and 7am, which is their "busiest time of the day."
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Hillingdon Council’s new leader, Ian Edwards, pledges to continue fight against Heathrow 3rd runway and HS2
Hillingdon Council (15th January) has appointed Councillor Ian Edwards as new leader of the local authority. He replaces London and Hillingdon’s longest serving council leader, Cllr Ray Puddifoot, who announced he was stepping down in October last year after 20 years of service. Sir Ray said: “As I step down tonight I do so in the knowledge that that Hillingdon Council has the administration, resources and first class staff which will see this council and our residents through the current pandemic and beyond.” Cllr Edwards, who also replaced Cllr Puddifoot as Conservative group leader, pledged to continue defending the borough’s environment and residents against a 3rd runway at Heathrow, and mitigate the impact of HS2.
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Shell pulls out of UK joint venture with BA and Velocys to produce “low carbon” jetfuel
Shell has pulled out of the joint Altalto venture with British Airways and Velocys to build a plant in Immingham, Humberside to make "sustainable jet fuels from non-recyclable household waste. There has been a lot of hype about novel fuels for aviation, and how they will help reduce the CO2 emissions from flights slightly - even while the sector stays the same size or grows. Shell will instead join a more lucrative fuels project in Canada, which plans to produce fuel more efficiently (using a better source of waste - as they include wood "waste"). The Altalto projects hopes to be producing jet fuel within 5 years. The existence of the Humberside plant enabled Boris to claim Britain would be in the forefront of low carbon fuels etc (Britain always has to be on top ...) Producing standard, high quality jet fuel from highly variable domestic waste is difficult. Other projects have not been a success. In 2017 the fuel project in Essex by Solena, to produce fuel for British Airways, was scrapped as Solena went bankrupt (presumably before producing any fuel). While the Canadian scheme plans to use over 200,000 tonnes of non-recyclable and wood waste annually to produce nearly 125m litres of fuel, the UK Altalto project would use 500,000 tonnes of waste to make 60m litres.
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Domestic flights and flights to European countries now covered by UK ETS (replacing EU ETS)
Having left the EU, there is now a UK Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) and aviation will be covered in that, in the same way as it was in the EU ETS. So only applies to flights within the UK, or any flight within Europe (the countries that are the EEA). In response to a question in Parliament by Ben Bradshaw (Labour), Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Minister of State (Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy) (Energy and Clean Growth) said: "The UK ETS initially covers around one third of UK greenhouse gas emissions, and applies to the power sector, heavy industry, domestic aviation, and flights from the UK to the European Economic Area. We recognise that meeting Net Zero will require us to build on this ambition. That is why in the next 9 months we will consult on how to align the UK ETS cap with an appropriate net zero trajectory. The cap will provide certainty about the UK’s decarbonisation trajectory over the long-term ... We are also committed to explore expanding the UK ETS and will set out our aspirations to continue to lead the world on carbon pricing in the run up to COP26."
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UK airports to receive financial aid from government before April
The UK Government has said it will financially support airports before the end of March, following the aviation industry’s fervent plea for support due to the new Covid travel restrictions. Aviation minister Robert Courts said: “The Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme will help airports reduce their costs and we will be aiming to provide grants before the end of this financial year.” (ie. April). Without any initial date, the scheme was announced in November 2020 for the first time. Under the scheme, grants of up to £8m per airport applying will be given to cover fixed costs such as business rates. More details are expected in the coming days. The lobby body, the Airport Operators's Association, wants help including a temporary exemption from local property taxes, and help with "regulatory, policing and air traffic control expenses." Robert Courts did not mention any support for airlines, which have benefited from general government furlough programmes; BA and EasyJet have had loans backed by the government's UK Export Finance. The sector wants restrictions ended by Easter, which is when they usually make money, and for the summer holiday season. Most airlines do not traditionally make much of their money in winter.