Contents:
Parliamentary News
Government News
London and South East News
Regional News
Other National and Industry News
European News
Parliamentary News
15th September – House of Commons Transport Committee beginning inquiry into airport surface transport to assess the Government’s success in planning and influencing selection of transport and infrastructure surrounding airports with over 1 million passengers per year. Submissions were invited by 12th October, and the inquiry will examine both the current and future requirements for surface links to airports, both in terms of range and capacity. The inquiry will not, however, consider non-surface access modes of transport (e.g. domestic flights), or air quality issues.
Government News
10th September – CAA appoints Dr Ashley Steel as new non-executive director, who was until recently Global Chair of Transport and Logistics at KPMG, to take up the post from 1st September for 3 years
London and South East News
1st September – Stansted encourages public to input feedback on new take-off procedure for 12 weeks, before submitting a two year proposal to the CAA. The procedure uses GPS technology to reduce noise pollution for the local community.
15th September – Gatwick launches ‘GatwickConnects’, the world’s first service allowing short-haul and long-haul flights to be booked in one transaction.
22nd September – CAA report confirms that Heathrow’s noise footprint is smaller than ever, with 25% fewer households affected by noise levels at night than in 2006, as a result of their on-going ‘Noise Action Plan’. This report coincides with the first week of Heathrow’s 6 month ‘Steeper Approaches’ trial, in which aircraft fly higher for longer before landing at the airport, reducing noise for people living under flight paths.
21st September – Southend Airport voted ‘Best Airport in Britain’ for third year running by customers in a ‘Which?’ poll, with a customer rating of 86% across the seven categories surveyed
Regional News
9th September – Flybe announces new route from Liverpool to Amsterdam
10th September – Manchester airport predicted to exceed 23 million passengers by end of 2015, after the busiest summer in the airport’s history.
14th September – Flybe urges UK Government to scrap internal air tax on internal air flights, by writing an open letter to Chancellor George Osbourne.
16th September – Passenger growth at Cardiff airport, with flights to Palma, Amsterdam, and many European cities popular.
16th September – Newquay Airport to scrap £5 ‘development fee’, after frustration from passengers and airlines.
17th September – Edinburgh Airport halts trial of new route two months early after noise complaints from those below the new route. Edinburgh Airport’s Chief Executive, Gordon Dewar, described how the airport had been ‘overwhelmed’ with complaints when he made the announcement at a public meeting in Broxburn, where he apologised to a large crowd.
18th September – Summer 2016 return of United’s seasonal summer route from Newcastle to New York , providing a direct service for easier access for both leisure and business passengers from the North East to many of North America’s major cities
29th September – Manchester Airport launches WebTrak – an online plane-tracking tool which allows the public to access data collected within 30 miles of the airport using newly-introduced systems
30th September – Ryanair has released its summer 2016 schedule for Glasgow, Bristol and Edinburgh. It shows 26 routes, including a new route to Berlin and daily flights from Glasgow to London increased by four times.
Other National and Industry News
4th September – CAA announces more details of its air show safety review, which was launched on 22nd August after the devastating Shoreham Airshow incident. Representatives of the independent ‘Challenge Panel’ are confirmed, with Geoffrey Podger as Chair. An interim report will be published by the review by the end of October and a final report in the early New Year.
18th September – CAA taking legal steps against Ryanair to ensure customers are protected with consumer rights by ensuring Ryanair changes its policy on paying flight delay compensation. This is part of the most recent phase of enforcement activity following the CAA’s six month review of the compliance of airline policy with European regulations, in relation to disrupted passenger support.
23rd September – A CAA consultation on simplifying many national rules and regulations that affect UK General Aviation (GA) is now underway through a second and final consultation on GA elements in the Air Navigation Order (ANO). This follows a consultation earlier this year on the wider aims of the review and follows a CAA commitment made by the CAA to reform the regulatory regime for the UK’s GA sector. The current consultation is available at www.caa.co.uk/consultations and will close on 4th November.
30th September – Air Transport Action Group joins call for climate change action, by writing an open letter to governments, which shows their commitment to a carbon-neutral pathway for aviation
European News
18th September – The CMA has asked the European Commission to investigate the merger of two airline passenger service systems providers – Amadeus and Navitaire. Amadeus IT Group S.A. plans to acquire the passenger service business of systems, business of Navitaire LLC.
25th September – Airbus has begun to assemble the fuselage of the first A350-1000 at plants in Hamburg and Saint-Nazaire.