Contents

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

Regional News

Industry News

European News

Government News

Media News

 

SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates

24 October 2013

7 March 2014

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

 

Regional News

7 Oct 2013 – Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive of Birmingham Airport, welcomed the announcement made by Sir Howard Davies on UK aviation capacity, stating that the South East of England would need more runways to meet future demand.

7 Oct 2013 – Bristol Airport is currently consulting with stakeholders over a proposed change to navigation procedures adopted by pilots. If implemented, the changes would see more aircraft approaching from the south of the Lulsgate site over the Severn Estuary, rather than over Somerset. It is felt that this would mean fewer planes flying over homes in North Somerset.

7 Oct 2013 – Bristol Airport has partnered with Destination Bristol to promote the city’s attractions to international airlines at the World Route Development Forum, an annual aviation industry event.

7 Oct 2013 – Businesses in Uttlesford have responded to a survey saying that they want to work with Stansted Airport.

8 Oct 2013 – Latest figures from Birmingham Airport show a 13.5 percent increase in the number of long haul passengers using the national UK airport in September, compared to the same month last year.

8 Oct 2013 – Peel Holdings, the owners of Durham Tees Valley Airport are to release a new Airport Master Plan in the coming weeks in an attempt to generate activity at the airport.

8 Oct 2013 – Southampton Airport has announced plans to introduce new satellite navigation technology to replace existing ground based navigation aids. This new technology will only affect aircraft landing from the south, and will provide an instrument approach that is aligned with the runway centreline. Existing aircraft navigation infrastructure in use at the airport is scheduled to be decommissioned in 2016.

9 Oct 2013 – The Institute of Public Policy Research have called for a direct flight between Newcastle International Airport and New York’s Newark Liberty International Airport, to develop business in the North East of England.

10 Oct 2013 – A bus link which runs between Leeds Bradford Airport and Otley, could be stopped after the airport said it no longer wished to support the route – local councillor Ryk Downes, who is also a board member for the West Yorkshire Integrated Transport Authority, expressed concerns at the proposals.

 

Industry News

7 Oct 2013 – Following the recent launch of direct flights between Birmingham Airport and Delhi International Airport, the two airports have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to formalize a working relationship and commit to developing links between the two cities even further.

8 Oct 2013 – Global air passenger transport rose by nearly 5 per cent in August. While global air freight fell by 0.2 per cent over the same period.

8 Oct 2013 – People looking to take specially chartered air taxi flights to meetings, conferences and events have been advised to check the operator of their flight has been approved before booking their trip. Any UK-based individual, organisation or company offering flights in return for payment must have an Air Operator Certificate (AOC) issued by the CAA. This means they are regularly checked out by the CAA to ensure they maintain and operate their aircraft to stringent commercial air transport standards.

9 Oct 2013 – Research by Imperial College, London has found that the risks of stroke, heart and circulatory disease are higher in areas with aircraft noise. Their study of 3.6 million residents near Heathrow Airport suggested the risks were 10 to 20 per cent higher in areas with the highest levels of aircraft noise.

9 Oct 2013 – Monarch Airlines has been barred from repeating an email advert where the airline advertises that passengers can buy extra legroom after it was found to be misleading.

11 Oct 2013- Staff working within NATS, the UK’s air traffic control provider, will demonstrate outside the European Parliament on 14 October 2013 against a new legislative programme for a Single European Sky which staff fear will lead to large job losses and jeopardise safety.

 

European News

8 Oct 2013 – Marian-Jean Marinescu, from the European Parliament Committee on Transport and Tourism has suggested that the Single European Sky initiative has not ‘met all expectations’. He calls for all member states, associations and stakeholders to seek common ground for discussion about how to develop the programme.

9 Oct 2013 – The European Parliament has backed a bill to regulate pilots’ working hours despite it being opposed by its own transport committee. The transport committee rejected the proposals last week after safety concerns were raised by the British Airline Pilots Association (BALPA) and other organisations. BALPA fears the changes could mean some aircrews fly for longer, leading to more pilots falling asleep at the controls.

9 Oct 2013 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has today welcomed a decision by the European Parliament to support harmonised flight time limits for pilots across Europe, and give regulators far greater oversight of fatigue. Following the vote, the CAA said it was vital that the aviation industry finds common purpose on tackling fatigue to ensure the highest possible levels of safety for the travelling public. The CAA is calling on the aviation industry to work together to ensure that reporting is improved, fatigue management is strengthened and the new European rules, when implemented, are utilised to their full to enhance aviation safety.

 

Government News

7 Oct 2013 – In a speech at the Centre for London, Sir Howard Davies, Chair of the Airports Commission, set out the commission’s developing views on the UK’s future airport capacity needs. The Airports Commission’s emerging thinking, on which it is inviting comments, includes:

  • Pressure on the UK’s busiest airports is likely to continue to grow even if a more conservative view of future aviation demand than the Department for Transport has in the past is taken. This is likely to see levels of future demand in excess of capacity in the south east of England airport system.
  • Importantly, this appears to be the case even if future aviation demand is constrained in order to meet the government’s legislated climate change objectives.
  • It is difficult to see how the market alone could resolve the capacity / demand imbalance in the south east. Regional airports are already serving their local markets effectively but it is difficult to see how they can absorb all the excess demand. The tools available to government to influence the location of flights are also very limited.

Taken together, the Commission believes these considerations point to the need for new runway infrastructure in the south east of England in the coming decades. A full transcript of the speech can be found here.

7 Oct 2013 – A compensation scheme for homeowners who face two years of ‘blight’ if their local airport is short-listed for expansion should be looked at by ministers, according to Sir Howard Davies.

8 Oct 2013 – The Treasury Committee has published a report containing conclusions and recommendations from its inquiry into the 2013 Spending Round. The report highlights what it calls ‘serious shortcomings’ in the current cost-benefit analysis for the High Speed 2 rail link. It calls for the economic case must be looked at again.

10 Oct 2013 – Written Ministerial Statement by The Minister of State for Transport, Baroness Kramer): My Right Honourable friend, the Secretary of State for Transport (Patrick McLoughlin), has made the following Ministerial Statement: I am announcing the appointment of Sir David Higgins as Chair of HS2 Ltd. Sir David will be taking over the role from the current Chair, Sir Doug Oakervee, as of January next year. A revised HS2 Ltd framework document which sets out the governance and sponsorship arrangements between the Department for Transport and HS2 Ltd has been published. Copies of the document will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. Any future revision to the document will also be placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The document is available online at https://www.gov.uk/government/policies/developing-a-new-high-speed-rail-network and http://hs2.org.uk/.

11 Oct 2013 – Sir Howard Davies letter to Lord Deben, Chair of the Committee on Climate Change in response to his original correspondence of 3 July 2013. Sir Howard thanked Lord Deben stating that he was aware of the previous work of the Committee on Climate Change, and grateful for the assistance officials have been providing to ensure that any analysis being developing was being reconciled.

 

Media News

6 Oct 2013 – A new application for smart phones has been produced which finds the cheapest airfares from 20 airlines and 23 online ticket agencies and 40 travel agencies around with world.

7 Oct 2013 – Campaign group HACAN say that residents of Brockley made more complaints than any other part of London when changes were made to flight paths of aircraft leaving Heathrow Airport.

7 Oct 2013 – Following the recent Government Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet re-shuffles, the campaign group ‘A Fair Tax on Flying’ has said that it provides an ideal opportunity for the Government to ‘look again’ at its position on Air Passenger Duty.

8 Oct 2013 – The campaign groups Stop Stansted Expansion and Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign have both issued press releases stating their disappointment that the Airports Commission has formed the preliminary view that extra runway capacity is needed in the south east of England.

11 Oct 2013 – New aviation minister Robert Goodwill previously opposed the building a third runway at Heathrow Airport.

 

Bulletin Summary

PDF Icon SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin October 5-11

PDF Icon SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin October 5-11

 

The Parliamentary and Party Conference information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc.