SASIG Weekly bulletin: 10 March – 16 March

Contents

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

Regional News

Industry News

Government News

House of Commons Questions

House of Lords Questions

Media News

SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Dates

27 June 2014

24 October 2014

13 March 2015

Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.

Regional News

10 Mar 2014 – Manchester Airport could soon have direct flights to China – airport representatives have spoken about being in ‘advanced discussions’ with Far East airlines. The news emerged as plans were revealed for a three city roadshow aimed at bringing Chinese businesses to the £800m Airport City project. The tour – of Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzen – will take place in June and will involve representatives from Manchester Airports Group, Beijing Construction and Engineering Group, which took a 20 per cent stake in the project in October, and development manager Argent.

10 Mar 2014 – The Consumers Association, ‘Which?’ have published a passenger survey which shows that Tyne and Wear Metro line to Newcastle International Airport is the most popular air-rail link for value for money and quality in the UK.

11 Mar 2014 – Nigel Milton, Heathrow Airport’s director of Public Affairs has stated that the airport’s proposed third runway is ‘divisive’ as they are asking residents to make their views known during a public consultation around the airport. Mr Milton said ‘having attended some of the events I understand that opinion is divided on whether Heathrow should be expanded or not.’

11 Mar 2014 – Airline operator, Flybe, said daily flights between Newquay and Gatwick will be reduced from six to three a day.

11 Mar 2014 – Sheffield City Region Local Enterprise Partnership Chairman James Newman has announced that Robin Hood Airport, will be included in the City’s Enterprise Zone.

11 Mar 2014 – Councillors from the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead have accused Heathrow Airport of being selective with the information they present at meetings with residents about the proposals for a third runway to the north-west of the current site.

13 Mar 2014 – More flights to the US and doubling services to European holiday destinations are among some of the proposed services in a new East Midlands Airport expansion plan.

13 Mar 2014 – Representatives of Southampton Airport have said that they will be planning to extend the runway at the site. Although there would be no increase in the size of aircraft allowed at the airport, the addition to the runway would enable them to take off carrying a heavier load of fuel, meaning longer flights. The runway extension could be in place in five years time, subject to formal approval and securing funding.

13 Mar 2014 – Birmingham Airport have announced that they will become the country’s first airport to offer UK charter package tours from China, and the first UK airport outside of London to launch direct charter flights to China.

13 Mar 2014 – Stockton South MP James Wharton has said that that he is hopeful for the future of Durham Tees Valley Airport following positive talks with KLM commercial director, Nicholas Henin in Parliament.

13 Mar 2014 – Stansted Airport is aiming to strengthen business and community links with a new corporate social responsibility) initiative, entitled the interactive Stansted Airport Community Network.

13 Mar 2014 – Etihad Regional has temporarily suspended services between Cambridge Airport and Amsterdam and Geneva following a review of operations by the airline.

Industry News

10 Mar 2014 – A number of smaller European airports, which expanded with the development of low-cost airlines, are reported to face cutbacks or even closure as traditional airlines become more competitive and regulators decrease state aid.

10 Mar 2014 – Saudi Arabian carrier Flynas is due to confirm plans to start services from the UK as part of a global expansion plan. Flights from Gatwick and Manchester to Jeddah are being scheduled following the acquisition of Airbus A330 wide body aircraft. New long-haul destinations include Gatwick, Manchester, Paris, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta and Casablanca.

11 Mar 2014 – Representatives from Gatwick and Heathrow Airports and the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise (Hacan), spoke at an event in London to discuss solutions to the issue of aircraft noise.

12 Mar 2014 – The presentations from the Airport Regions Conference Getting dAIR: Decarbonising Airport Regions, held on 6 March 2014 in Brussels are now available online. The individual presentations can be downloaded from the links below, or here. The presentations available are:

Richard Tuffs – Innovation and CO2 Reduction;
Milda Manomaityte – Making AirRailWork, Marketing, Customer Experience and Intermodal Partnerships,
Ben van Os -Decarbonisation at Regional Airports – Local pressure, political statement or good business case?
Elisabeth Celsing – Environmental work and operating a climate-smart airport; and
Richard Moxon – Surface Access Issues at a Regional Airport in the UK.

13 Mar 2014 – At this years Airport Economics and Finance Conference in London it was claimed that three quarters of the world’s airport’s operate at a net loss, with 80 per cent of airports handling less than one million passengers per annum reporting average net losses of 6 per cent.

13 Mar 2014 – The Civil Aviation Authority have published an infographic showing UK airport growth during 2013.

Government News

12 Mar 2014 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority have published the Statutory Instrument: Air Navigation (Amendment) Order 2014. This Order makes further changes to the Air Navigation Order 2009 (the ‘ANO 2009’) to enable the Civil Aviation Authority to grant permission for foreign aircraft to carry out specified operations in the United Kingdom.

12 Mar 2014 – The Competition and Markets Authority has published Guidance: Airport licence condition appeal rules. These rules regulate the conduct under sections 24 and 25 of and disposal of appeals brought under the Civil Aviation Act 2012.

13 Mar 2014 – The Office for National Statistics have published the statistical bulletin: Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for January 2014 . This includes time series data for Monthly Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for January 2014 .

13 Mar 2014 – Dame Deirdre Hutton has been reappointed as Chair to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) for a second 5 year term. During her time as CAA Chair, Dame Deirdre has overseen a huge amount of organisational change within the CAA. Over the next 5 years she will continue to steer the CAA’s modernisation and change programmes. Dame Deirdre has been Chair of the CAA since 1 August 2009.

13 Mar 2014 – New figures published by the UK Civil Aviation Authority show UK airports growing passenger numbers for the third consecutive year. In total, UK airports handled 228 million passengers during 2013; an increase of 3.5 per cent (7.8 million) on 2012.This growth continues the recovery started in 2011 following three years of falling passenger numbers. Passenger numbers for 2013 were 8.5 per cent above 2010 levels (210 million passengers), although still 4.8 per cent below 2007’s peak of almost 240 million passengers. In 2013, 20 million passengers took UK domestic flights, representing an increase of 2.2 per cent on 2012. This was the first yearly increase in domestic passenger numbers since this segment peaked at 25 million in 2005.

Other key statistics from the data:

At the London airports – Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend – the increase was 3.5 per cent to 140 million passengers. Heathrow, Gatwick London City and Southend each handled their highest ever annual total: 72.3 million passengers used Heathrow 3.4 per cent more than in 2012, 34.2 million (3.5 per cent more) used Gatwick, 3.4 million (12 per cent more) used London City and Southend grew 57 per cent from 617,000 to 970,000 passengers in the year. Luton grew by 0.8 per cent and, after five years of declining passenger numbers, Stansted grew by 2.2 per cent to 17.8 million.
At other UK airports outside London, traffic rose by 3.5 per cent to 88.7 million passengers. All airports with over a million passengers per year saw increases, with the exception of Liverpool and Belfast International, which saw declines of 6.1 per cent and 6.7 per cent respectively. Manchester saw the largest absolute rise of 1 million passengers (5.2 per cent) to 20 million.
The majority of UK airport passengers (137 million) were travelling to or from geographical Europe – representing an increase of 4.1 per cent from 2012. Within this, the largest absolute increase was in passengers travelling to and from Spain (up by 1.6 million, an increase of 4.8 per cent), while the largest fall in passengers travelling to and from an individual European country was Cyprus, where numbers fell by 7.2 per cent (0.2 million).
There was a 0.7 per cent (0.1 million) increase in passengers on flights to and from North America, to 20.6 million in 2013. Passengers travelling to and from the remaining international destinations (outside Europe and North America) totalled 31.6 million in 2013, an increase of 4.4 per cent on 2012. Of these, the two countries with largest absolute increases were for passengers travelling to and from the UAE (689,000) and India (238,000). Egypt and Kenya registered the largest absolute declines in passenger numbers with 97,000 and 85,000 passengers respectively.
During 2013, business passengers accounted for 22 per cent of total passengers, holiday passengers for 44 per cent and VFR passengers for 34 per cent. In 2013, inbound passenger segments – those passengers who are not resident in the UK – grew faster than outbound ones: outbound business passengers fell by 1 per cent whereas inbound business grew by 4.1 per cent; outbound holidays grew by 1.4 per cent versus 4.9 per cent on inbound holidays; outbound VFR increased by 3.6 per cent whereas inbound VFR grew by 9.9 per cent.
During 2013, air transport movements (landings and take-offs of commercial aircraft) at UK airports totalled 2 million, an increase of 1 per cent on 2012 but still 14 per cent below the 2007 peak of 2.3 million. An increase in the average number of passengers per flight meant that passenger numbers have not fallen as much as the number of flights since 2007. The total tonnage of freight and mail carried from UK airports in 2013 was 2.5 million tonnes, a fall of 2.2 per cent on 2012.

House of Commons Questions

Nicholas Brown – Government policy on short-term air passenger duty holiday to incentivise new long haul air routes

12 March 2014

Mr Nicholas Brown (Labour, Newcastle upon Tyne East): To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what his policy is on a short-term air passenger duty holiday to incentivise new long haul air routes.

Nicky Morgan, Economic Secretary to the Treasury (Conservative, Loughborough): I refer the hon. Member to the answer provided on 5 November 2013, Official Report, column 103. The Treasury keeps all taxes under review.

House of Lords Questions

Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington – Objectives of the General Aviation Unit

12 March 2014

Lord Stevens of Kirkwhelpington (Crossbench peer): To ask Her Majesty’s Government what are the objectives of the General Aviation Unit, due to be in operation from April 2014.

Baroness Kramer, Minister of State for the Department for Transport (Liberal Democrat peer): The CAA is setting up a new General Aviation Unit which will be fully operational from April 2014. This will be a specialist unit, dedicated to proportionate and effective regulation which supports and encourages the growth of a vibrant UK General Aviation sector. The CAA is currently developing the new Unit’s programme of work.

Media News

10 Mar 2014 – In a letter to The Guardian newspaper a range of voices with an interest in aviation have said that noise levels at Heathrow Airport and other airports should be regulated by an independent ombudsman, expansion.

16 Mar 2014 – Airport World discusses UK aviation expansion options.

SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin 10 Mar – 16 Mar