General News
Below are links to stories of general interest in relation to aviation and airports.
Mixed mode at Heathrow should be opposed; it means expansion through the back door, with more noise hell for thousands
Since 6th April, Heathrow has been operating using only one runway, in mixed mode, as a result of significantly reduced flight numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mixed mode means landings and take-offs can take place on the same runway. At the moment this will be alternated each week, starting on a Monday. It is looking increasingly unlikely Heathrow will get a 3rd runway, due to the judgement of the Appeal Court, and now Covid. But if it does not get its 3rd runway, it is likely they will be looking to be allowed some form of expansion in its “two-runway strategy” that it is expected to launch in due course. This could take the form of increasing the annual cap on flight numbers from its current threshold of 480,000, to a new figure, over 550,000. That is 70,000 more flights per year, or about 190 more per day, using mixed mode. That means a lot more noise nuisance for thousands.The change would need a public inquiry, and would be politically toxic in areas affected negatively by Heathrow. It could bring misery to the 725,000 people already blighted by aircraft noise. Mixed mode means Heathrow expansion through the back door and it should be opposed.
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Ryanair getting rid of 3,000 staff, imposing 20% pay cuts – knows air traffic recovery will be slow
Ryanair, which is Europe’s biggest budget airline, has said that it will not be running more than a skeleton service until July – and even then, only around half the expected passengers will travel till September. It will cut up to 3,000 jobs, mainly pilots and cabin crew, in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It will also impose unpaid leave and pay cuts of up to 20%, and close some bases, “until traffic recovers”. The airline is currently flying around 1,700 passengers a day on a much-reduced network of Irish Sea and Continental services. It knows it will take time for passenger volumes to return. It is irritated that Air France and Lufthansa have been given state aid, and also EasyJet. And it has not. Air fares will initially be very low, to try to attract passengers back. Mr O’Leary dismissed the notion of social distancing on board aircraft. “Taking out the middle seat in an aircraft achieves no social distancing. There’s less than two feet between the aisle and the window seats." (And between rows). He misguidedly hopes temperature checks will do the trick. He knows traffic will not return to pre-coronavirus levels for at least 2 years.
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BA to cut Gatwick operation and lay off 1,130 pilots – and might not return to Gatwick post-pandemic
British Airways plans, due to Covid, to lose more than 1,100 pilots and make heavy cuts to its Gatwick airport operation as part of 12,000 redundancies - which is up to 30% of its workforce. Letters sent to union representatives for all sections of the airline set out the deep cuts, as well as drastic changes to terms and conditions across the company. BA plans to lay off almost 80% of crew managers at Gatwick and 60% of other cabin crew, more than 1,100 of almost 1,900 staff. The jobs of just over 400 ground staff will be outsourced to the airport and its contractors. The airline knows “there is no certainty as to when services can return” to London City or Gatwick airports. So BA may not continue at Gatwick. And they had “not ruled out suspending the remainder of our Heathrow operation”. Ground staff at Heathrow are also likely to be forced to accept new contracts with significantly lower pay. All 4,346 BA pilots will be asked to sign new contracts changing their terms and conditions, and accept new rostering arrangements. BA will be seeking to lay off 1,130 pilots. Around 22,000 BA employees were furloughed in April and May.
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Grant Shapps told EasyJet it would not face environmental levy in a private meeting last year – now gives it a £600 million loan
The UK’s Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, during a meeting in September 2019, assured easyJet that an environmental tax on flights is “not the way forward.” This has come to light in documents obtained by Greenpeace's Unearthed. Shapps had agreed with easyJet that they did not want taxes aimed at reducing the aviation sector’s CO2 emissions. But now the UK government has given easyJet a £600 million loan, with no climate conditions attached, to help them during the Covid crisis. Meanwhile the EU is reportedly looking to make compliance with the Paris Agreement, and lower carbon emissions, a requirement for cash help. The French government has announced the terms of the €8 billion bailout for Air France, that will include deep (albeit non-binding) decarbonisation targets. Across the world, the aviation sector is lobbying aggressively to get government funding, as demand for air travel has been drastically reduced. It is deeply questionable whether scarce government funds should be spent on such an environmentally damaging sector, taking no account of its impact on climate breakdown.
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Coronavirus: Boeing to cut 15,000 jobs – 10% of its workforce as air travel demand collapses
Boeing plans to cut about 10% of its jobs as it continues to reel from the Coronavirus crisis and the fallout from its 737 Max safety crisis. It will lost about 15,000 staff out of a global total of around 150,000, through a combination of buyouts, layoffs and the elimination of unfilled roles. At the end of 2019, the company had about 161,000 staff. The company recorded a loss of $641 million in the first quarter, compared with a profit of $2.15 billion in the same period in 2019. The company's airline customers, which purchase Boeing planes to upgrade their fleets, have put purchases and maintenance on hold as they suffer from a global slowdown in travel. And Boeing continues to face losses due to the grounding of its 737 Max planes, which were blamed for two deadly crashes, in October 2018 and March 2019. Boeing's chief executive Dave Calhoun said "The aviation industry will take years to return to the levels of traffic we saw just a few months ago." Even that may be optimistic.
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Airbus and Rolls-Royce have ended a joint venture to produce a hybrid-electric airliner test model
It seems the plans for a (pie-in-the-sky) electric plane before too long are even more remote than they were before ... Airbus and Rolls-Royce have ended a joint venture to produce a hybrid-electric airliner testbed that could have paved the way for electric aircraft of the future. [A testbed aircraft is an aeroplane, helicopter or other kind of aircraft intended for flight research or testing the aircraft concepts or on-board equipment. These could be specially designed or modified from serial production aircraft.] The aim was to replace or or two of four jet engines with an electric engine. There is an unrealistic hope in the industry, and by some politicians, that aircraft carrying hundreds of passengers on their holiday etc trips will, in the not too distant future, be able to fly just on electricity. The reality is that, at best, there might be planes that can carry rather few passengers for rather short distances. Electric planes will NOT be able to substitute for planes like A320s now, travelling over 1,000 miles. The joint venture presumably was not sufficiently successful that the companies felt the need to continue with it. They did manage to produce a keg-sized 2.5MW generator, smaller than produced before.
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British Airways lays off up to 12,000 staff, due to likely air travel decline for years
Madrid-based IAG, the owner of British Airways, says 12,000 of BA's total staff of 45,000, now face redundancy. The airline is trying to conserve cash to keep going. Passenger numbers are expected to halve compared to 2019. BA had already furloughed more than half (22,626) of its 45,000 workers. In a statement after the close of the Stock Exchange, IAG said: 'In light of the impact of Covid-19 on current operations and the expectation that the recovery of passenger demand to 2019 levels will take several years, British Airways is formally notifying its trade unions about a proposed restructuring and redundancy programme. The proposals remain subject to consultation but it is likely that they will affect most of British Airways' employees and may result in the redundancy of up to 12,000 of them." ..."There is no Government bailout standing by for BA and we cannot expect the taxpayer to offset salaries indefinitely." News that thousands of people will lose their jobs comes weeks after the airline company's Spanish owners axed a controversial £300million payout to shareholders earlier this month.
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Airlines say Covid 2-week quarantine plan ‘will kill’ international travel – deterring travellers (though necessary in efforts to end the pandemic)
Trade body Airlines UK is saying "the airline industry and wider economy will suffer immeasurable damage" if ministers press ahead with plans to quarantine travellers for 14 days after they arrive at British airports. Currently people are arriving in the UK with no requirement, other than advice, to keep themselves in isolation for two weeks - in case they develop Coronavirus. So it is possible those arriving in the UK could be bringing in Covid with them, and setting up new infection spots. But the airlines say passengers having to remain at home, or in a hotel room, for 14 days would wreck international travel, further cut air travel demand, and damage their attempts to get flying profitably again (they do not appear bothered about the spread of Covid). Airlines are saying quarantine measures should be "co-ordinated" and the same between countries. They say, rightly, “Nobody is going to go on holiday if they’re not able to resume normal life for 14 days, and business travel would be severely restricted." They like to claim aviation is vital to the UK economy ... in reality most UK air travel is for leisure trips.
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US flight attendants warn: the airlines need to stop flying now
The airlines were a main contributor to the rapid spread of Covid-19 around the world. Rapid air travel is a major risk in the quick dissemination of any virus disease, enabling one to become a pandemic. But as well as moving the passengers around the globe, aiding the spread of infection, the airline staff are themselves at huge risk of catching the virus from the passengers they are transporting. American flight attendants are very concerned about their own health risks, as they are very exposed to potentially catching virus disease. They often have to travel to and from work on public transport; they have to pass through many parts of an airport, coming into contact with many people; they have to come into close contact with passengers during a flight, and they then risk infecting their families when they return home. Even quarantining passengers in their destination country will not reduce the risk to airline staff. If every airline passenger, and all airline staff, wear masks, the risk would be slightly reduced. However, the effectiveness of a mask, worn for many hours and becoming damp, is unknown.
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Norwegian Air says most of fleet will stay grounded until 2021, and shareholders will be seriously hit
Norwegian Air says virtually all of its fleet of aircraft will remain grounded until 2021 as it seeks to persuade shareholders (meeting on 4th May) to accept a government-backed rescue plan that will wipe out most of their investments. Bondholders, aircraft lessors and shareholders will have to take a huge cut in profits in order for the airline to get a 3bn kroner (£230m) state bailout. Even that may not be enough, it warned, in its “base scenario”, where operations only restart in earnest next summer. Currently just seven of a fleet of 147 planes are not grounded as they are being used for state-subsidised domestic flights in Norway, mainly for essential cargo. Its future plans may mean only keeping key profitable routes, ending long-haul routes to secondary airports, with a fleet up to 30% smaller than previously planned. Bondholders will later this week decide whether to accept the strategy and allow the debt to be converted into equity, a necessary move if Norwegian is to gain access to state funds. Norwegian’s aircraft lessors will also be asked to take equity in the company, rather than pursue debts. The airline is looking to reduce its obligations on leasing planes by £403m.