Contents
SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Date
Regional News
Industry News
Parliamentary News
House of Commons Questions
Media News
SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Date
6 March 2015
Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.
Regional News
26 January 2015 – Crawley Borough Council has voted to oppose the building of a second runway at Gatwick Airport. The council agreed by 25 votes to 11 to register their objection to the building of a second runway at Gatwick in their response to the Airports Commission’s public consultation.
26 January 2015 – Gatwick Airport has conducted a strategic review of its terminal operations and has announced a plan to operate airlines out of single terminals in the future.
27 January 2015 – Heathrow Airport are claiming that a number of complaints about aircraft noise at made to the site last year were made by protesters using automated software.
27 January 2015 – East Sussex County Council have voted by 27 to 19 to support the building of a second runway at Gatwick Airport.
27 January 2015 – A joint project to construct the A6 Relief Road to Manchester Airport has been given permission to begin. Stockport Council has received notification from the Transport Secretary that the Compulsory Purchase Order and Side Roads Order can proceed.
28 January 2015 – Representatives from London City Airport have refused to attend a public meeting to talk about changes to flight paths to and from the airport. While Newham Council have said that they support plans to expand London City Airport but have asked for strengthened conditions to limit the impact on residents.
28 January 2015 – The Member of Parliament for East Surrey Sam Gyimah has called Gatwick Airport a ‘negligent neighbour’.
29 January 2015 – Heathrow Airport could be among businesses contributing to a £300m River Thames defence scheme if the site is recommended for expansion by the Airports Commission. Representatives from the airport have said that its plan for expansion does include addressing flooding from the River Thames tributaries that burst their banks early in 2014. The Environment Agency, which has plans to meet representatives from the airport in the next week, said it was ‘very encouraged’.
29 January 2015 – £1M has been allocated for development of Junction 8 of the M11, to upgrade the interchange, located near Stansted Airport.
29 January 2015 – Designs of developments for Gatwick Airport train station have been published.
30 January 2015 – A report by The Gatwick Coordination Group, a group of six Members of Parliament representing constituencies close to Gatwick Airport, have released a report stating that expanding the airport would be ‘a catastrophe’ for surrounding communities’. The Group have put their arguments against expansion to The Airports Commission consultation – they criticise the airport’s plans for infrastructure, recruitment and housing needs. Issues around noise, finances and consultation are also raised.
30 January 2015 – Chairman of New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership Mark Pendlington launched the Norwich Airport training academy, set to begin in September 2015.
31 January 2015 – The Chairman of Gatwick Airport Sir Roy McNulty, has said that there would be ‘all to hell to play’ from people living under the Heathrow Airport flight path if that site was chosen for expansion. Sir Roy said that people living in the Heathrow area were promised by David Cameron before the last election, that there would be no third runway at the airport, and promised a political ‘backlash’ if expansion went ahead.
Industry News
26 January 2015 – The Chief Executive of VisitEngland James Berresford has welcomed the Government’s announcement of a £56m fund to support new routes from regional airports. But industry coalition the Tourism Alliance criticised ministers. The Alliance said funds to attract overseas visitors to regional airports could be rendered ‘useless’ by Air Passenger Duty.
26 January 2015 – The airline operator The Flybe Group has seen shares fall after it said passenger revenue fell in the third quarter of its financial year as it kept fares low, and it will not get any benefit from the recent oil price decline in the current year, and a minimal impact next year. In a statement, the airline said passenger revenue fell to £126.8m in the three months to end-December, down 3.8 per cent from £131.8m a year earlier, despite 2.4 per cent growth in passenger revenue per seat to £50.23, from £49.04. The airline is restructuring and re-sizing, and cut seat capacity by 6.1 per cent on the year to 2.5m seats, from 2.7m seats. Its planes were more full as a result, with load factor rising to 74.3 per cent, from 68.7 per cent
26 January 2015 – Birmingham Airport have released a statement stating that the Airports Commission’s research on effect of runway expansion on UK regions could be flawed, according to analysis. Whilst the Airports Commission is mandated with taking a ‘UK-wide perspective,’ the new analysis has questioned whether it has properly investigated the potential economic effect on the country’s regions of the shortlisted runway options. A study by economic analysts Oxera, commissioned by Birmingham Airport, says the methodology used by PwC on behalf of the Airports Commission could hide winners and losers in UK regions, and underplays the negative effect that expansion at Heathrow Airport could have on some UK regions. Oxera argues that this is because, rather than modelling what could happen to the Midlands and other UK regions under the Heathrow and Gatwick scenarios, PwC split the UK into three large blocks: London & the South East, the Rest of England, and the Rest of the UK.
The Oxera analysis says that, ‘A more relevant question for analysis which could have been asked by the Airports Commission and PwC is where the national losses and gains are accrued and how they are distributed’. Oxera conclude that that the most intuitive deduction about economic impacts, taking the Airports Commission’s traffic forecast as given, is that expansion at Heathrow Airport would be more likely to exacerbate rather than mitigate regional imbalances, by drawing more business into the London area.
27 January 2015 – The airline operator Aer Lingus has confirmed it is ‘willing’ to accept a takeover offer of €2.55 a share from the owner of British Airways and Aena – IAG. The airline owners have said the proposed €1.36 billion bid is ‘subject to certain pre-conditions’ and has granted IAG access to perform a ‘limited period of confirmatory due diligence’. Aer Lingus has also told IAG that the offer is subject to ‘addressing the interests of relevant parties’. That is thought to be Ryanair, which has a 29.8 per cent stake and the Irish government, which owns 25 per cent.
28 January 2015 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) hast published a progress report on the recommendations and actions from its comprehensive review of offshore helicopter operations from February 2014. Safety improvements introduced since the CAA review was launched have included:
- Stopping flights over the most extreme sea conditions.
- Ensuring every passenger on an offshore helicopter flight is equipped with new improved Emergency Breathing System (EBS) ahead of schedule.
- Standardisation of pilot training, particularly for the use of complex automated systems on helicopters and the associated operating procedures.
- Establishing a new top level group to drive change, the Offshore Helicopter Safety
The majority of the recommendations and actions are aimed at preventing an accident from occurring. Some of these, such as helicopter design, are longer term projects but the CAA and OHSAG will be maintaining pressure on the organisations responsible for change to ensure the safety improvements are delivered as soon as possible.
30 January 2015 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has confirmed its approval of a request from London Southend Airport to establish controlled airspace (CAS) around the airport. However, the extent of the CAS original requested has been reduced following assessment work carried out by the CAA. Southend’s new airspace will be Class D, allowing access on request to transiting general aviation aircraft. It will feature a control zone (CTR) around the airport itself from surface up to 3,500ft, and a larger control area (CTA) from 1,500ft to 3,500ft. The airspace will become operational on 2 April 2015. The CAA agreed with the Airport that the measure was necessary to further enhance the protection given to commercial air transport flights into and out of Southend. The number of airprox incidents in the vicinity of the airport has increased in recent years – including two category A incidents, the most serious. Alternatives to controlled airspace, such as establishing a Radio Mandatory Zone (RMZ) around the airport, were considered, but a trial RMZ running since the second half of 2014 has proved not to be an appropriate long-term solution in this instance. London Southend Airport, which currently sits within Class G airspace, has seen a significant increase in commercial air transport movements in the last three years. In accordance with the CAA’s airspace change process, the Airport launched a consultation on establishing CAS with the general aviation community and the aviation industry, before submitting its proposal to the CAA.
Parliamentary News
23 January 2015 – The Environmental Audit Committee has published: letter to Defra minister on Air Quality Monitoring consultation, 21 Jan 2015.
27 January 2015 – During a meeting of the Culture, Media and Sport Committee on tourism MPs heard evidence on present state of tourism, improving the tourism industry, tourism in the online industry, the role of local authorities, GREAT campaign, tourist guides, the role of the internet and coastal tourism. Giving evidence were: Destination Manager, New Forest Destination Partnership, Anthony Climpson; Area Manager UK, Booking.com, Jason Grist; Association of Professional Tourist Guides, Themis Halvantzi-Stringer; and Director, Association of Leading Visitor Attractions, Bernard Donoghue, A full transcript of the evidence session is available here.
House of Commons Questions
Hepburn, S – Air Passenger Duty and Newcastle Airport
27 January 2015
Stephen Hepburn (Jarrow, Labour): The Chancellor will be aware of the importance of the success of Newcastle international airport and of the need for successful businesses to plan ahead. He will understand, then, how the possible cut in air passenger duty north of the border is felt as a threat. Will the Chancellor give an assurance to the business of the Newcastle international airport and to other potential businesses affected that we will match any cut in APD funding north of border?
George Osborne (Chancellor of the Exchequer, Tatton, Conservative): The hon. Gentleman raises a serious point, and there is agreement on it across the political divide. The devolution of air passenger duty to Scotland raises the potential for real pressure to be put on airports in north-east England, but also on Manchester airport, which is partly in my constituency. We will of course have to see what the Scottish Parliament does when the powers are devolved, but the hon. Gentleman has my assurance that we will work together to ensure that we minimise the impact on the north-east if this happens, and that we will protect regional airports in England. We have a couple of years to work this out—it does not have be done tonight or tomorrow—and we can work out a plan that protects the brilliant Newcastle, Manchester and other regional airports.
27 January 2015
Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what plans he has to update the Government’s Aviation Policy Framework following the publication of the Airports Commission Final Report; and if he will make a statement.
Robert Goodwill (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport, Scarborough and Whitby, Conservative): The Airports Commission is set to publish its final recommendations in the summer of 2015. It will be for the Government of the day to decide how to respond to those recommendations and whether to update the Aviation Policy Framework.
Fitzpatrick, J – Costs of reducing Air Passenger Duty
29 January 2015
Jim Fitzpatrick (Poplar and Limehouse): To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the cost to the Exchequer of reducing (a) Band A and (b) Band B air passenger duty by 50 per cent, excluding Scotland, from 1 April 2015; and if he will make a statement.
Priti Patel (Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury, Witham, Conservative): Air Passenger Duty (APD) is kept under review as part of the normal policy management process. I draw the Hon. Member’s attention to the disaggregated APD receipts by country which are published by HMRC at https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/disaggregation-of-hmrc-tax-receipts and the data on forecast APD receipts and the cost to exempt children published in tables 2.1 and B.3 of Autumn Statement 2014 at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/autumn-statement-documents.
Media News
26 January 2015 – ‘Kent News’ present a short update on the position at Manston Airport.
28 January 2015 – The campaigning organisation AirportWatch has produced a briefing entitled ‘Aviation carbon emissions, a new runway and the Airports Commission’. The briefing considers the carbon figures, of current and forecast carbon emissions by the UK aviation industry, and anticipated carbon efficiencies in future decades.
SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin 26 January – 1 February
SASIG-RegionalIndustryNews-Bulletin 26 January – 1 February
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc .