Contents

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

Regional News

Industry News

Media News

 

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

25 October 2013

7 March 2014

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

 

Regional News

19 July 2013 – Lydd Airport is encouraging conference and event planners to bring their meetings to the airport, and businesses to try flying lessons or a pleasure flight over the Channel as part of an awayday.

21 July 2013 – East Midlands Airport saw a 10 per cent increase in passengers numbers in June, compared with last year.

22 July 2013 – Stansted Airport submitted its plans to the Airports Commission for expansion. The airport owners, The Manchester Airports Group, submitted potential options to the Airports Commission that include a £10bn hub with four runways.

22 July 2013 – Plans to expand an airport in Kent have been opened up to two months of public consultation. Development would see Rochester Airport’s two grass runways replaced and a business park under the £4m proposal.

23 July 2013 – Gatwick Airport release their submission to the Airports Commission. Chief executive Stewart Wingate said the airport wanted a second runway to be positioned south of the existing airport. The plans contain three versions of a southern runway model, close, medium or wide spaced from the existing runway. Mr Wingate said studies had shown the numbers of people impacted by noise from a two-runway Gatwick would range from 3,300 to 11,800. Louise Goldsmith, leader of West Sussex County Council, said the authority had supported the Gatwick expansion.

23 July 2013 – The Western Gateway project has been submitted to the Airports Commission by Cardiff Airport. The proposal sees an expanded airport and a direct rail link to Heathrow Airport.

23 July 2013 – Guernsey Airport’s redevelopment is nearing completion.

23 July 2013 – Uttlesford District Council encourages ‘national solution’ to increasing the UKs airport capacity.

25 July 2013 – Newcastle Airport Chief Executive, David Laws talks about the airports plans to expand over the next decade.The airport is consulting on its new ‘Masterplan’ which sees development up to 2030.

25 July 2013 – More planes went through Gloucestershire Airport in May than London City and Bristol. Statistics published by the Civil Aviation Authority rank the airport in Staverton 10 places behind Heathrow on a list showing the 15 busiest airports in the UK. The figures are calculated according to the number of flights, not the number of passengers. The county’s airport handled just shy of 7,000 flights during May, making it the 11th most active in the UK. The airport handled more than 42,000 flights so far this year.

26 July 2013 – Manston Airport has submitted plans to the Airports Commission which would see the airport attract 16m passengers by 2050.

 

Industry News

22 July 2013 – British Airways will pay a fine in the US after its website failed to make discounted baggage fees available to some passengers booked through agents.

22 July 2013 – Spanish infrastructure company Abertis Infraestructuras has agreed to sell Belfast International and Stockholm Skavsta airports.

22 July 2013 – China Southern will begin flying the Boeing Dreamliner on its Heathrow to Guangzhou route for the winter 2013/14 season. The airline plans to use the 787 instead of an Airbus A330-200 on service, which runs three times per week.

24 July 2013 – British Airways is to fly an Airbus A380 to South Africa from February next year. The Heathrow to Johannesburg service will initially operate three times per week when it launches on February 12, 2014. This will increase to six flights per week from March 10.

25 July 2013 – The UK’s largest coach operator, National Express, has seen demand on airport routes climb 17 per cent over the year to date, compared with the same period last year. Almost 3 million passenger journeys on National Express have gone to UK terminals this year, prompting the company to launch new services.

 

Media News

22 July 2013 – A new Sector Insight document, entitled ‘Unmanned Aircraft: A future without pilots’ explores the uses of UA and the challenges that must be overcome for UA to be a success.

22 July 2013 – Members of the campaign group ‘A Fair Tax on Flying’ have expressed disappointment  at the Government’s response to the Transport’s Select Committee’s recommendation – which states that they ‘no plans to undertake a review of the economic impact of APD at this point’.

26 July 2013 – Shadow transport secretary Maria Eagle outlined her plans to change much of the Government’s local transport policy framework. Ms Eagle has said that a Labour Government would abolish England’s local transport bodies and instead give local transport funding to local authorities rather than the business-led Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs).