Contents

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

Regional News

Industry News

Media News

 

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

28 June 2013

25 October 2013

7 March 2014

Meetings are held at 11am, Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, with lunch provided afterwards,  location map.

 

Regional News

 1 Apr 2013 – The chief executive of one of Britain’s busiest airports has said smaller airports such as Durham Tees Valley (DTV) face “an uphill battle to justify their existence”. Paul Kehoe, who runs Birmingham Airport, said the short-lived cheap travel boom had left the country with twice as many airports as it needs, and named DTV as one of the regional airports that could struggle to survive. Passenger numbers at DTV, based near Darlington, have plummeted in recent years, from a peak of 735,000 people a year in 2007 to 165,000 last year. 2 Apr 2013 – However, the boss at Norwich International airport has hit back at claims that Britain has too many airports and that some, including Norwich, faced an uphill battle to justify their existence.

2 Apr 2013 – Stansted Airport announces a new airline confirmed it is moving to the Essex airport from Gatwick. National carrier Air Moldova will move its UK flight operations at the end of April. The airline will start services on April 29 and fly direct to Chisinau International Airport twice a week, connecting passengers to the Moldovan capital.

2 Apr 2013 – Campaigners against plans which would see Luton Airport’s capacity increase to 18 million passengers per year have released a report where they claim flights are louder year on year. Hertfordshire Against Luton Expansion (HALE) have analysed a noise track record from the past five years which they say shows flights are getting noisier over time. They claim 60 per cent of daytime departures now register at or above the 73 decibel (dB) annoyance level when they reach the noise monitors four miles from the airport compared to 45 per cent in 2007. Their analysis also shows night flights are louder, with half the departures now at or over 73dB at the noise monitors.

3 April 2013 – Turkish Airlines has launched its new schedule from Birmingham Airport, increasing its daily flight programme from seven to ten flights each week to Istanbul – and beyond to the 221 global destinations in the airline’s network.

4 Apr 2013 – The consultation on the proposed changes to flight paths at Birmingham Airport has been extended. It was originally scheduled to end on April 12 but people now have until May 17 to submit their views on the proposal. The changes have been proposed as a result of the runway extension which is due to open in early 2014 and as the runway will be extended further south, the route aircraft will follow after they take off to the south will be changed.

5 Apr 2013 – Pakistan International Airlines introduction of quieter planes at Leeds Bradford Airport has been postponed. The airline was meant to be using a Boeing 777 on its services to Islamabad from March 14.

5 Apr 2013 – Proposals to cater for wider winged aircraft at London City Airport will be looked at as it launches its second phase of consultation. Public events will be held throughout next week on both sides of the Thames. It follows an initial consultation period which took place before Christmas.

 

Industry News

29 Apr – A ‘roadmap’ which will it is intended will lead towards a global solution to tackle aviation emissions will be presented to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) in September. The High-level Group on International Aviation and Climate Change (HGCC), tasked with solving the problem, met this week in Montréal to discuss a global market-based measure.

30 Mar 2013 – The Economist considers the options available for providing extra capacity at Britain’s airports.

30 Mar 2013  – Tour operators owning 43 per cent of the part-privatised National Air Traffic Services (Nats) are aiming to find a buyer for their holdings. Other members of the consortium, called the Airline Group, which includes Virgin Atlantic, British Airways, easyJet, Monarch Airlines and Lufthansa, are also considering a sale.

1 Apr 2013 –Architects Foster and Partners talk about the importance of planning airports with user-friendly, integrated transport links and the potential benefits of the proposed Thames Estuary Airport in the UK.

2 Apr 2013 – Norwegian airport operator, Avinor, delivered profit after tax of €124 million in 2012 – up from €113 million in 2011. During the same period, operating revenues increased to €1,224 million.

2 Apr 2013 – Jet 2 has announced two new routes from East Midlands airport to Prague and Budapest. Both services will run twice-weekly, with the Prague route launching on November 7, followed by Budapest on the following day. Flights to Prague will operate on Thursday and Sunday, with services to the Hungarian capital operating on Monday and Friday. Jet 2 already serves Prague from Edinburgh, Leeds Bradford, Manchester and Newcastle, and Budapest from Edinburgh and Manchester.

2 Apr 2013 –  New data has been published which finds Europe’s emissions trading scheme more oversupplied with carbon allowances than ever before. The emissions trading scheme set a cap on emissions from power stations and factories of 10.5 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent over the five year period from 2008-2012, but data released today finds verified emissions sitting 8 per cent below the cap at only 9.7 billion tonnes.

3 Apr 2013 – Virgin Airlines say they are ‘very interested’ in exploring further cooperation opportunities among the world’s airlines ‘particularly with Air France-KLM and Alitalia’ . However, a spokesperson added that ‘no detailed discussions’ had taken place yet, with talks due to take place in the ‘coming months’.  The airline is already planning a joint venture with Delta Air Lines this year in an attempt to challenge British Airways’ position in the London to New York market.  It is thought that a similar deal could be made between Virgin and Air France-KLM to open up more flights to Asia, the Middle East and Africa. Italian airline Alitalia could also be involved. Virgin is considering altering its business model and may be willing to sacrifice its independence as it looks to return to profitability.

4 Apr 2013 – Stronger business confidence in emerging regions of the world helped push up global airline passenger demand by 3.7 per cent in February. Demand has been growing at an annual rate of 9 per cent since October – almost double the growth trend over the first nine months of 2012.

5 Apr 2013 – Airline Flybe will pay the Government’s Air Passenger Duty departure tax on behalf of customers making new bookings online between today and next Tuesday across 116 routes for travel between October 27, 2013 and October 25, 2014.

 

Media News

2 April 2013Britain’s manufacturers are calling for government to increase the priority it places in investment in roads, act faster on major issues like airport capacity and take the politics out of infrastructure by setting up an independent commission. The call comes after a major survey published by EEF, the manufacturers’ organisation. Among the key survey findings are: majority of manufacturers identifying the road network as critical to their business; majority of export-intensive manufacturers identify aviation infrastructure as important to identifying new business opportunities; and less than a quarter of manufacturers say investment in high-speed rail is important to their company’s growth.