General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Application to appeal against Manston airport court decision denied
An appeal, by Ms Jenny Dawes, against a court decision not to quash the development consent order (DCO) for Manston airport has been rejected. A bid for a Judicial Review into the decision to give the Manston airport project the go ahead was dismissed last month but claimant, Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes, then appealed that judgement. Now Mr Justice Dove has refused the appeal application and notice of the refusal was sent by the Judge’s clerk on October 9th. The DCO was initially granted in July 2020 when the Department of Transport approved the application to create an air freight hub at the site. Ms Dawes may now apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal. This would ask the court to overturn Mr Justice Dove’s decision and his refusal to allow an appeal of that decision. Ms Dawes has 21 days to apply to the Court of Appeal for permission to appeal.
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Could Heathrow ever afford to build a 3rd runway?
The possibility of more airport expansion, and growth in the number of flights and passengers, is a serious problem of increasing carbon emissions. Heathrow is to have a new chief executive, Thomas Woldbye, from Copenhagen airport in October - replacing John Holland-Kaye. He has to decide whether to try to get a 3rd runway. As well as the increased CO2, Heathrow has the problem of paying for its expansion. Could it ever afford it? Since it got final approval for expansion in February 2020 (Appeal Court), costing about £14 billion, the costs of construction and financing will have hugely increased. Heathrow has vast debts, which it has increased to raise the regulatory value of their assets. Heathrow now has £16bn of borrowings and posted a loss this year largely due to the rising cost of its inflation-linked loans. The team working on the expansion was disbanded a few years ago, and there are no current estimates of the cost. The forecast for the demand for flying, oblivious of the climate destabilisation now underway, is for over 50% more passengers by 2050. The airport’s shareholders and board are yet to decide whether to push forward with a 3rd runway, and over what timeframe.
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Ice block from plane crashes through house roof in Banbury
A Banbury woman was left with a £12,000 hole in her roof, thought to have been caused by a block of ice falling from a plane. She heard a massive bang, went upstairs and could see blue sky through a hole into her loft, and out of the roof. She found bits of grey ice on the landing floor. Nobody was hurt. Having called out the fire brigade, a firefighter told her it was likely caused by ice falling from an aircraft on its way into Heathrow. The repair will cost about £12,000, through insurance. Some previous incidents of ice blocks falling from planes have been water from the plane toilets. Others are water in the undercarriage bay when the aircraft took off which formed into ice and stays as a block of ice whilst cruising at 35,000ft. As the airplane cames in to land at 3,000 or 4,000ft, the undercarriage would be put down and the slightly melted ice would fall out. There is information about other incidents, in previous years, of objects - often ice blocks - falling from planes. See link.
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JR application to stop Manston airport Development Consent Order denied by judge
An application for Judicial Review of the Manston airport DCO has been rejected by a judge. The DCO was initially granted in July 2020 when the DfT approved the application by RiverOak Strategic Partners to make the airport an air freight hub. That was refused in the High Court in February 2021 following a legal challenge by Ramsgate resident Jenny Dawes and supporters which resulted in the DfT Secretary of State conceding the decision approval letter issued from the Minister of State did not contain enough detail. The DCO was granted for a second time in August 2022 by then Transport Minister Karl McCartney. In response Jenny launched a 2nd JR application, trying to stop the airport plans. The application was initially dismissed by Mr Justice Lane in January but then allowed on partial grounds in a review by Mrs Justice Lieven in March. The latest hearing was before Honourable Mr Justice Ian Dove in July. Jenny plans to appeal the judgement, and remains "firmly of the view that the government’s decision to proceed with Manston Airport, in the face of expert evidence to the contrary and in the context of the worsening climate crisis, is nonsensical."
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Tories have accepted over £290,000 in donations in kind from UK airports
Airport operators have lavished Britain’s last three prime ministers with VIP services worth more than £200,000 since the 2019 election, analysis by openDemocracy has found. Liz Truss, Boris Johnson and Theresa May are among the Conservative MPs who have accepted more than £275,000 in donations-in-kind from airport operators, while Conservative Party HQ has also taken more than £13,500 in donations from airport operators. This is mainly in the form of luxury suites at the airports, with chauffeurs, meals etc. It comes as the government signals its backing for airport expansions, in contrast with advice from its own climate advisers, the Climate Change Commission, that adding runways to Heathrow and Gatwick would be incompatible with the UK’s net zero goals. The Department of Transport told openDemocracy it was “supportive of airport expansion where it can be delivered in a sustainable way”. There can be little doubt that these gifts in kind to politicians are to make the recipients favourable to aviation sector expansion plans. Other named Tory MPs have accepted gifts in kind from airports.
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Planning Inspectorate approves Liverpool airport expansion plans
The UK Planning Inspectorate has granted Liverpool John Lennon airport’s (LJLA) Lawful Development Certificate (LDC) appeal for a large area of land that is to be utilised for the continued expansion of the airport. The local Council, Halton, rejected the airport’s initial LDC application, once it became aware of the actual facts behind the loss of the land. The airport plans 14 acres of solar panels east of Dungeon Lane, the energy from which will be used by the airport. However, the airport appealed and this may been influenced by politics. Local campaigners are devastated at this news, since the evidence against the airport expansion in the case was damming. The solar farm is part of a wider £100m project by the airport. Other components of the initiative include a new road for the airport, a large warehouse to the south of the airport, expansion of the existing terminal, and extension of the runway.
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Gatwick airport expansion: people have till 29th October to register to be an “interested party”
Gatwick has now had its expansion plans - to convert its emergency runway into a full runway, for take-offs only - accepted by the Planning Inspectorate. This is part of the DCO process (Development Consent Order) as the Gatwick expansion is called as a project of national significance. So the plans will go into the examination process, by which organisations and members of the public can give their opinion on the plans. This means submitting evidence and applying to appear at the public hearings. The cut off date to register to be an "interested party" is Sunday, October 29th. That means people can give their opinion at a later date. People can register online. After October, 29 the Planning Inspectorate then has 6 months to carry out an examination. During this time registered commentators will be invited to give further details about why they have responded in the way they did. The inspectorate's report will then be sent to the relevant Secretary of State, who will make the decision to grant or refuse development consent.
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CMA upholds CAA cut to Heathrow’s landing fees
The UK competition watchdog, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), has provisionally upheld a ruling to force Heathrow to cut its landing fees in a long-running dispute between airlines and the airport. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA), the industry regulator, in March ordered the airport to cut its charges to airlines from £31.57 per passenger to £25.43 from next year. Both sides lodged appeals with the CMA, as Heathrow wanted there to be no cut and airlines wanted a larger cut. The CMA's recent provisional ruling found “the CAA was not wrong in most of [its] decisions”. It noted that the CAA was “wrong in relation to one small element” of the calculation it made for an allowance for exceptional events that might reduce passenger numbers, and it had not fully taken into account the impact of Covid on air travel demand. But the CMA said these were expected to have “only a small net impact” on the level of the charges. The CMA will make its final ruling on October 17th.
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Meloni government plans to cap price of flights to Italian islands
Airlines have called on the European Commission to step into a row over the Italian government’s plan to cap air fares on certain routes. Giorgia Meloni’s right-wing government has outlined plans for price caps on flights between mainland Italy and Sicily and Sardinia after ticket prices rose 70% on those routes. Airlines are angry at the proposals, which represent an unusual attempt to cap fares. Trade body Airlines for Europe (A4E) called on Brussels “to clarify with Italy that this intervention impacts the free and deregulated air transport market in Europe”. A4E said capping fares on these routes would “violate” the rights of airlines “to compete wherever possible, set prices and define services as they see fit." Under the Italian plan, airfares during the high season would be capped at 200% of average prices while the use of “profiling algorithms” that may impact prices would also be limited, according to a statement from the prime minister’s office. Legislation on the European air travel market allows for price regulation to and from remote regions “only in specific cases . . . to ensure both territorial connectivity and affordability."
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Gatwick Airport’s two-runway expansion plans that would double its capacity
Gatwick's Development Consent Order (DCO) papers have been submitted to the Planning Inspectorate, and can be seen by the public. The DCO hearing will probably last for about 6 months, and start by the end of 2023. The airport’s current annual capacity is 32.8million passengers. It wants to double that by building space for an extra 100,000 flights a year, partly by making even more use of its one full runway, and by changing the emergency runway, so it can handle take-offs (it is too short for landings). The project "would also include the development of supporting infrastructure and facilities to enable increased capacity at Gatwick airport to service 75 million passengers per year by 2038". Final sign off will be decided by the Secretary of State. There is a consortium of 10 local councils (Tandridge, Crawley, East Sussex, Horsham, Kent CC, Mid Sussex, Mole Valley, Reigate and Banstead, Surrey CC and West Sussex CC that is opposed to the expansion plans. They had significant concerns about the poor initial consultation, and poor engagement with the public, by Gatwick before the application was submitted.