Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
European News
Parliamentary News
Government News
Media News
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
25 October 2013
7 March 2014
Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.
Regional News
6 August 2013 – London Heathrow is the most expensive logistics location in the world, according to a new report by DTZ. The property solutions firm’s Global Occupancy Costs Logistics 2013 report reveals that renting a logistics facility around the London airport will cost US$313 per square metre per annum.
6 August 2013 – KLM Engineering is hoping to secure permission to recycle planes at Norwich International Airport.
6 August 2013 – A new Essex Employment and Skills Board has had its inaugural meeting. The board consists representatives from the owners of Stansted Airport and other representatives of major businesses in the county, including Ford, Raytheon, e2v, as well as other large companies and small and medium sized employers. Essex County Council represents the public sector, with South Essex College and University of Essex representing the further education and higher education sectors.
7 August 2013 – Gloucestershire Airport launched operational use of a new Instrument Landing System (ILS) which guides aircraft to land in poor weather.
8 August 2013 – The Chief Executive of Manchester Airport, Andrew Cowan, outlines plans to establish direct flights to China over the next nine to 12 months.
8 August 2013 – A new call to ban night flights at Gatwick Airport has come from people living more than 20 miles away in Kent.
8 August 2013 – Passenger groups hope to petition for a regular bus route from Witham to Stansted Airport.
9 August 2013 – Fairoaks Airport in Chobham has submitted plans to the Airports Commission to develop the Surrey Airport. Plans include increasing the runway size from 800 metres to 1,199. The airport already has permission for 120,000 fixed wing aircraft movements a year and operates only 30,000. The airport owners Fairoaks Operations Ltd. also plan to build a new 6,000sqm hangar on the site and do not require planning permission because it was classed as general permitted development.
Industry News
4 August 2013 – Average spend per shopper at Heathrow now stands at £38.86, up from £24.68 in 2002, an increase of 57 per cent, while retail sales through the airport have increased 47 per cent in the past decade, to £1.7bn last year. Last year the airport’s shops produced £2,782 sales per square foot, compared to Selfridges on Oxford Street which produced approximately £1,500 per square foot, and Harrods Knightsbridge store, approximately £1,000. Around 70 per cent of Heathrow’s passengers are from outside the European Union.
5 August 2013 – Europe’s largest regional airline Flybe Group which appointed a new chief executive last month, said its chief financial officer had resigned. Former easyJet UK director Paul Simmons is also joining Flybe as chief commercial officer at from October 28.
5 August 2013 – The European Commission have agreed to a planned merger of American Airlines parent AMR Corp. and US Airways Group Inc.
9 August 2013 – Air Blue, Pakistan’s second largest airline will start twice weekly flights between Birmingham and Lahore, via Islamabad from the end of September.
Government News
1 August 2013 – The Energy and Climate Change Committee has published its report ‘Local Energy’.
2 August 2013 – The Civil Aviation Act 2012 transferred the responsibility for regulating aviation security from the Department for Transport to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) with effect from 1 April 2014. The purpose of this Charges Consultation is to seek initial comment on the CAA’s draft proposed mechanisms by which the additional cost of the new aviation security function will be recovered. The consultation will start on Friday 2 August 2013 and end on Friday 13 September 2013. The consultation documents can be found on the CAA website here.
2 August 2013 – A report by the Department for Transport – ‘Transport: an engine for growth’, sets out the strategic context to the substantial investment in transport made in the 2013 spending round. These documents bring together what the Government is doing now and what it plans to do across road and rail as well as local and international transport and set out principles that will guide future investment decisions.
7 August 2013 – The Airports Commission has published a summary of the short and medium term measures and all the long term proposals submitted for new runways, airports and infrastructure changes designed to strengthen the UK and London’s air connections with the rest of the world. The short and medium term summary paper covers a wide range of proposals with recurring themes such as the importance of resilience in the UK’s airport system and of taking into account the noise and carbon emissions from any short and medium term measures proposed. These proposals will be analysed alongside any evidence and views submitted over the coming months. The detailed proposals for long term options have all been published on the commission’s website (if not previously published by the sponsor themselves). Any comments received will be considered alongside the proposals. The commission has also published an information note which gives details on the processes and timings that may be established in phase 2 of the commission’s work, should its interim report conclude that a significant increase in aviation capacity is needed. This is to inform all interested parties of the likely time frames for any work that may need to be undertaken in phase 2. Parties are invited to submit comments on all the documents published on the 7 August 2013until 27 September 2013.
Media News
6 August 2013 – The agenda for the Liberal Democrat conference, which takes place in Glasgow on 14-18 September, has been published. A motion has been tabled before the conference Green Growth and Green Jobs (Transition to a Zero Carbon Britain Policy Paper) which includes ‘reducing aviation emissions by replacing air passenger duty with a per-plane duty, charged in proportion to the carbon emissions created by that journey’.
7 August 2013 – The Guardian considers housing prices in light of local Airport expansion.
8 August 2013 – The BBC describes and critiques four ideas for airport expansion submitted to the Airports Commission by private individuals.