Contents

SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Dates

Regional News

Industry News

Government News

House of Commons Questions

Media News

 

SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Dates

6 March 2014

27 June 2014

24 October 2014

13 March 2015

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

 

Regional News

23 Nov 2013 – A short report into Birmingham Airport’s role as a growing international hub airport.

24 Nov 2013 – Prestwick Airport has passed into public ownership after being bought by the Scottish government for £1. The facility, which was put up for sale last year by New Zealand firm Infratil, has incurred annual losses of £2m.

24 Nov 2013 – The carrier WizzAir is now offering package holidays from Doncaster Sheffield Robin Hood Airport to destinations in Poland.

25 Nov 2013 – The London Stansted Cambridge Consortium are lobbying for more long-haul flights out of Stansted Airport to support exports and help the area’s high-growth industries.

25 Nov 2013 – The airport of the Isles of Scilly is undergoing a special inspection because of concerns over its management, the UK’s air regulator says. The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed St Mary’s Airport was under ‘special attention’. However, it added there were no plans to remove its operating licence.

25 Nov 2013 – Flybe staff have held face to face talks with the airline’s Chief Executive as he prepares to close their Guernsey and Jersey bases.

26 Nov 2013 – British Airways is to begin routes from London City to Rotterdam and Florence from March 2014. The carrier are also adding extra daily flights from the Docklands airport to Amsterdam, Edinburgh and Zurich.

26 Nov 2013 – Businesses at London-Oxford Airport say their profits have increased in the last year, as a result of an increased demand to use private jets.

27 Nov 2013 – A new Monarch Aircraft Engineering Limited maintenance hangar has opened at Birmingham Airport. It is the only hangar in the country to have space for maintenance of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner.

27 Nov 2013 – East Midlands Airport has released figures which have shown its busiest summer since 2008. Almost three million passengers travelled between May and October, an increase of 10 per cent compared to the same period last year:  while the number of passengers using Manchester Airport increased by 6.6 per cent to 1.88m in October, its seventeenth consecutive month of year-on-year growth.

27 Nov 2013 – The Honest Truth Partnership has launched a campaign at Exeter Airport to reduce anti social driving and the number of young people killed or seriously injured on the roads. The partnership includes representatives from Devon County Council’s Safe and Sustainable Travel Team, Devon and Cornwall Police, Devon and Somerset Fire & Rescue Service, Teignbridge District Council and Exeter Airport.

28 Nov 2013 – A second consultation process is underway concerning the future of Durham Tees Valley Airport. The consultation is taking the form of public drop-in sessions to be held during December.

28 Nov 2013 – The impact on State-owned airline Aurigny of a new operator on the Guernsey-Gatwick route will be considered in license applications. The increased restrictions were agreed after the Treasury and Resources Department called for greater protection of the route.

28 Nov 2013 – A proposed expansion of Luton Airport has been put on hold after concerns were reported to have been raised by Hertfordshire County Council.

28 Nov 2013 – Luton Airport Operations has completed its concession acquisition by Ardian and AENA Group. Ardian is an independent private investment company and AENA is a leading airport operator.

 

Industry News

23 Nov 2013 – Moscow could soon have a fourth passenger airport if the city can find investors interested in investing 7b Rubles (approx. £130m) to develop the Ramenskoe Test Airfield. Ramenskoe is known for hosting the MAKS International Aviation and Space Show, but city authorities are planning for the airport to serve up to 10m people annually by the end of 2019.

25 Nov 2013 – Ryanair has been granted access to start flights in March 2014 from Dublin to Moscow and St Petersburg.

25 Nov 2013 – Nick Stevens the Manager of External Operations Analysis at NATS writes about five ways which he believes would improve airport capacity without building extra runways.

 

Government News

25 Nov 2013 – The Government has published its bill for the first stage of the High Speed 2 rail project. The first part of the £42.6b rail line will run between London Euston Station and Birmingham, which is due to open by 2026. The Department for Transport has launched a ‘hybrid’ bill which acts as a planning application for the first phase of HS2 and, if passed by Parliament, will give the Government powers to build and operate the new high-speed line.

25 Nov 2013 – Industry leaders and Government Ministers have announced the signing of a joint initiative to reduce carbon in infrastructure. The initiative which aims to save resources by using new technologies, construction techniques and low carbon materials to cut down on emissions, was signed at the launch of the Infrastructure Carbon Review.

28 Nov 2013 – Environment Minister Dan Rogerson has announced the local authorities to receive new funding from the Air Quality Grant Programme. £1m is to be used for a wide range of new local projects in 28 local authority areas who have each been awarded between £10,000 and £60,000.

29 Nov 2013 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA)  has updated General Aviation (GA) stakeholders on its plans and progress in delivering improvements to the sector. The update follows publication of the Government and CAA’s responses to the recent GA Red Tape Challenge. Initial work is focused on setting up the new GA Unit within the CAA. The Unit will be fully operational by April 2014. It will oversee the risk-based and proportionate regulation of non-complex EASA and national Annex II aircraft, their general non-commercial operation, the oversight of associated design, production and maintenance plus pilot training organisations and small non-public transport airfields. The CAA’s response to the general aviation red tape challenge listed a number of areas identified for potential deregulation and delegation. So far the key issues raised by the GA community include: Extending the number of aircraft allowed on a Permit to Fly; Regulation of aerodromes e.g. allowing pilot-controlled runway lighting; and Improving licensing rules and regulations.

29 Nov 2013 – The Competition Commission is consulting on its draft rules of procedure for dealing with airport licence condition appeals, which could include challenges to the price controls introduced for airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick by the Civil Aviation Authority.

29 Nov 2013 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is introducing a new approval system for organisations providing airworthiness oversight of recreational ‘Permit to Fly’ aircraft. The new requirements will bring greater clarity to how organisations undertake airworthiness tasks on behalf of the CAA. The CAA said the change will introduce a more proportionate approach to regulating recreational aviation.

 

House of Commons Questions

 

Green, K – Allowance of additional carbon Emissions

26 November 2013

Kate Green, Shadow Equalities Minister (Labour, Stretford and Urton): To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (1) for what reasons his Department’s guidance on air quality permits additional emissions where the effect is deemed to be negligible in areas where air quality management standards are being breached; (2) at what point the cumulative impact of additional emissions in areas where air quality standards are already being breached would lead to a prohibition on further such emissions.

Dan Rogerson, Environment Minister (Liberal Democrat, North Cornwall): In order to allow new industrial installations to operate and contribute to the economy, DEFRA’s guidance on air quality permits additional emissions in areas where air quality management standards are being breached, where the effect is deemed to be negligible. If a European air quality standard is already being breached in a particular area, then a permit should not be issued to any new industrial installation that would cause anything beyond a negligible increase in the extent of the breach. However, if it is clear to the regulator that a combination of controls on the proposed installation and measures to reduce emissions from other sources will achieve compliance with the standard, then the installation may be permitted. Any significant additional contribution to a breach of a domestic air quality standard has to be considered on a case-by-case basis by the regulator, taking account of the costs and advantages of measures to reduce or prevent the breach.

 

Cairns – Effects on businesses of restrictions places on goods purchased at airports

28 November 2013

Alun Cairns (Conservative, Vale of Glamorgan): To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make an assessment of the effect on businesses in airports of recent changes by airlines to their policies which prevent passengers from bringing items they have purchased at the airport in addition to their carry-on baggage allowance.

Robert Goodwill, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport (Conservative, Scarborough and Whitby): We have no plans to make such an assessment. The size and amount of baggage, be it cabin or hold, that a passenger is permitted to take on board a commercial aircraft is a matter for airlines to decide as private commercial companies.

 

Media News

27 Nov 2013 – Virgin Atlantic have called for the establishment of an independent noise ombudsman, which they say will help to cut down on disruption people living under flight paths and near airports. 29 Nov 2013 – The London Assembly have also requested the establishment of an independent regulator to protect those affected by aviation noise.

29 Nov 2013 – An advertising display on the A4 near Chiswick Roundabout which interacts with British Airways planes as they fly overhead is in breach of planning conditions according to a local residents’ group.

 

PDF Icon SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin 23 Nov – 29 Nov

PDF Icon SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin 23 Nov – 29 Nov 

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