Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
Parliamentary News
Government News
House of Commons Questions
Media News
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
24 October 2013
7 March 2014
Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.
Regional News
6 Sept 2013 – Gatwick Airport have published their submission to the Airports Commission discussion paper 5 on noise.
8 Sept 2013 – The Luton-Dunstable guided bus way is set to open in September. The eight-mile route, promoted by Luton Borough Council utilises the track bed of a disused railway for much of its length. The route will provide connections between Dunstable, Houghton Regis and Luton town centres, Luton Airport Parkway station and Luton Airport.
13 Sept 2013 – Southampton Airport is installing Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting throughout the airport, cutting its electricity use by 10 per cent in 2013 compared to 2012. The project is the first time LED technology had been used in this way at any UK airport.
Industry News
10 Sept 2013 – In the second quarter of 2013, 81per cent of scheduled flights to the UK were on-time, an increase of three percentage points compared to the second quarter of 2012. All 10 airports monitored saw increases in on-time performance and falls in average delay. Birmingham Airport registered the biggest increase in scheduled flight on-time performance of six percentage points. Gatwick Airport with 79 per cent of flights on-time and Heathrow Airport with 77 per cent registered the lowest on-time performance among the 10 airports monitored by the CAA.
11 Sept 2013 – Heathrow Airport carried 8 per cent more passengers last month than it did in August 2012. Just fewer than 7 million people used the airport, an increase on August 2012, which saw comparatively lower traffic during the London Olympics. Gatwick Airport saw 4 million passengers use the airport in August 2013 – up by nearly 200,000 compared to the prior year.
12 Sept 2013 – Shares in airlines have risen as oil prices have fallen.
12 Sept 2013 – Ryanair has outlined to a court in South Africa the steps it is taking to identify people who are making anonymous critical comments about its safety approach and record. The airline has secured an order forcing African telecoms group Telkom to provide it with information that might help identify a person who has made anonymous internet postings. The company is also seeking information on a specific IP address in South Africa. The person has made postings on an internet site called ‘PPRuNe.org’, which is used by pilots to discuss matters to do with their work.
12 Sept 2013 – Seven new rescue helicopter bases are to be built in the UK for Bristow Helicopters. New facilities will be built at commercial airports at Caernarfon, Humberside, Inverness, Manston, Newquay, Prestwick and St Athan. Buildings in Stornoway will be redeveloped. Crews and helicopters to be based at Lee-on-Solent and Sumburgh will use existing facilities.
Parliamentary News
11 Sept 2013 – The House of Commons Transport Select Committee have published a report of their scrutiny of European Union draft proposal on flight time limitations by the European Commission. In the report the Committee state that the Commission’s draft regulation represents an improvement on the European Aviation Safety Agency proposal, but have expressed concerns over several areas, including operator responsibilities, the limit for flight duty periods at night, the effective use of scientific evidence in rule-making and the arrangements for oversight and active management of the new regime. The Committee recommends that the European Scrutiny Committee request that the European Commission address the matters they have raised in this report, including ensuring effective monitoring of the new flight time regulation. They also recommend that the European Scrutiny Committee requests the European Commission provide an assessment of the regulation two years after its implementation.
12 Sept 2013 – Early Day Motion (EDM) 2196 – Boarding practices of airlines (updated)
Early Day Motion (EDM) 296 was tabled on 24 June 2013 by Adrian Sanders (Torbay) Liberal Democrats: That this House believes that the refusal by certain airlines to allow passengers to carry on board airport shopping, in addition to a prescribed cabin baggage allowance, departs from the accepted norm, and is both confusing for consumers and anti-competitive, taking away income from airport retailers; is concerned about how this practice negatively impacts consumer choice, restricts growth at regional airports and impacts on a business model that delivers £2 billion revenue per annum; and calls on the Department for Transport to support any measure that will protect consumer rights that have been in place for many years. This EDM has been signed by nine MPs.
Government News
11 Sept 2013 – Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin presented the findings of a report by independent consultants KPMG, into the estimated benefits of the High Speed Rail 2 project (HS2).The report asserts that HS2 could grow the country’s economy by £15billion per year and that the regions outside London would benefit most from the project. The report, commissioned by HS2 Ltd, the company developing the new high speed link, also provides and analysis of the economic benefits for each HS2 city region (with variations in the impact on particular regions depending on assumptions as to competition business sensitivities) -For example the report estimates that HS2 will give the Birmingham city region economy a yearly boost equivalent to 2 and 4 per cent of the city region’s Gross Domestic Product. For Manchester city region the figure is estimated to be between 1 and 2 per cent, for Leeds city region up to 2 per cent and for Greater London less than 1 per cent. A key facts document for the HS2 project can be found here.
House of Commons Questions
Oral Question
Stringer – Manchester Airport and high speed rail
12 September 2013
Graham Stringer (Labour, Blackley and Broughton): For maximum economic benefit, the high-speed link needs to go to Manchester airport, yet it is left out of the otherwise excellent KPMG report, which brings a serious dimension to this debate. When will it be included?
Norman Baker, Transport Minister: We fully appreciate the importance of Manchester Airport, which meets a very important regional need. The issue of HS2 and Manchester Airport is under consideration, so the hon. Gentleman should not be unduly pessimistic about that.
Written Question
Goldsmith – Implications for airport capacity policy and complying with Air Quality Directives
9 September 2013
Zac Goldsmith, (Conservative, Richmond Park): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the implications for his policy on airport capacity of the ruling of the Supreme Court of 1 May 2013 on ‘ClientEarth’ versus The Secretary of State for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, on the UK’s breach of its obligations to comply with the Air Quality Directive.
Simon Burns, Transport Minister (Conservative, Chelford): No assessment of this has been made. The Government has set up the Airports Commission to examine the question of how best to maintain the UK’s international hub connectivity. The Government expects, in line with its terms of reference, that the Airports Commission will take account environmental factors including air quality when reaching its recommendation.
Media News
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc.