Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
European News
Government News
House of Lords Questions
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
28 July 2013 – A section of the Tyne and Wear Metro which connects to the airport is to close throughout August for an upgrade.
29 July 2013 – Self service electronic check-in equipment worth £150,000 is part of investment at Humberside Airport.
29 July 2013 – London City Airport has submitted a proposal to Newham Council for permission to reconfigure its taxiways to cater for larger aircraft.
30 July 2013 – Local MP Mike Thornton (Eastleigh) has praised Southampton Airport for its impact on the Hampshire economy.
31 July 2013 – Earnings at Bournemouth Airport have increased by more than 400 per cent, turning from a loss last year to a profit of almost £2m. The airport opwners, Manchester Airports Group, added that passenger numbers have also risen by 16 per cent in the last year.
1 August 2013 – Luton Airport has been sold to a consortium headed by Spanish airport operator Aena. Current owner Abertis has sold the Bedfordshire airport in a deal worth £433 million in the latest sale of the group’s airports – Abertis last week sold Belfast International airport to ADC & HAS Airports Worldwide and sold Cardiff airport last year
2 August 2013 – The first phase of plans for the development of Norwich International Airport has been agreed. The Airport believes it could create up to 150 jobs.
2 August 2013 – A museum of the Jet Age is to re-open at Gloucestershire Airport in Staverton.
2 August 2013 – Passenger numbers at Durham Tees Valley Airport dropped again in the last year, while Newcastle Airport saw a slight rise in the number of people using its services. Figures released by the Civil Aviation Authority showed passenger numbers for Durham Tees Valley in June this year were 13,771 – a loss of more than 1,000 people, or a 7.3 per cent drop, on the same month last year. In comparison, Newcastle Airport increased its passenger numbers by 1.2 per cent to 488,442 in June this year and has served a total 4,387,443 passengers in the year to date.
Industry News
28 July 2013 – Heathrow Airport is developing a new boarding pass system which it believes will speed up the movement of passengers through the airport.
29 July 2013 – Boeing has requested airlines to carry out inspections of a transmitter used to locate aircraft after a crash.
29 July 2013 – Tui Travel is attempting to cut fuel costs with the introduction of new winglets on its Boeing 737-800 aircraft. The company believes that that the new Split Scimitar Winglets could lead to annual savings of up to 200 metric tonnes of jet fuel per aircraft
30 July 2013 – The latest statistics from NATS show the environmental efficiency of UK airspace has improved over the past three months of the year. NATS gauges airspace efficiency using its 3Di metric, with every flight being measured against a scale where zero represents an environmentally perfect flight. Most will typically score in the range between 15 and 35 and the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has set NATS a target score of 24.The 3Di score for the period from April to June shows a marked improvement in comparison to the previous quarter, where the score had risen above the CAA target. As a result the average score for the year so far stands at 24.1.
31 July 2013 – Anna.aero presents an analysis of the three major African gulf airline operators, Etihad, Emirates and Qatar Airways.
2 August 2013 – Air India are now operating a four times weekly service from Birmingham to Delhi and Amritsar using a new Boeing 787-8 ‘Dreamliner’.
European News
29 July 2013 – European aerospace group EADS could be divided into three separate divisions with the parent company rebranded as the Airbus group. The move, understood to be under consideration by senior executives at the company, would see all defence and space activities brought in one group by splitting Airbus Military, which makes tankers and military transporters, away from the main plane making division and combining it with the space and defence units.
Government News
30 July 2013 – The Department for Transport has published the data series, ‘How people travel (mode)’.
31 July 2013 – The Department for Transport updated the data series ‘Air traffic at UK airports today’.
House of Lords Questions
Jones of Cheltenham – British Overseas Territories (Aviation)
30 July 2013
Lord Jones of Cheltenham (Liberal Democrat Peer): To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the future reliability of inter-island links in the South Atlantic for the transport of imports and exports and the mobility of labour in the South Atlantic British Overseas Territories after the St Helena airport is operational and the RMS St Helena ceases to operate.
Baroness Warsi (Senior Minister of State, Department for Communities and Local Government & Foreign and Commonwealth Office): We are working closely with the St Helena and Ascension authorities as plans are developed for the transportation of supplies and passengers domestically among the islands after the introduction of air access to St Helena. These plans are progressing although work remains to be done in the run up to the opening of the airport and the withdrawal of the Royal Mail Ship St Helena service.
Jones of Cheltenham – Ascension Island (Domestic flights)
30 July 2013
Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to update the agreement with the government of the United States on the use of Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island to allow a scheduled or chartered domestic service between St Helena and Ascension Island.
Baroness Warsi: The current agreement with the United States on the use of Wideawake Airfield already allows for a domestic service of this type between Ascension and St Helena. There are ongoing discussions with the Government of the United States on the logistical and practical aspects of any such service.
Jones of Cheltenham – Ascension Island (Wideawake Airfield)
30 July 2013
Lord Jones of Cheltenham: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to update the agreement with the government of the United States on the use of Wideawake Airfield on Ascension Island to allow international flights to and from St Helena to use Wideawake Airfield (1) as a staging point, and (2) as an alternative or diversionary landing site.
Baroness Warsi: Negotiations are underway with the Government of the United States over the use of the Wideawake airstrip as a diversionary landing site for international flights to and from St Helena.
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc.