Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
Government News
European News
Media News
SASIG 2014/15 Meeting Dates
24 October 2014
6 March 2015
Meetings are held at Local Government House, Smith Square, SW1P 3HZ, location map.
Regional News
11 August 2014 – Train services between Gatwick Airport and London Victoria have been disrupted by emergency safety checks near Battersea Park.
11 August 2014 – The campaign group, Gatwick Area Conservation Campaign (GACC), has accused the airport of not fully representing what it called ‘embarrassing’ results from a local consultation about potential expansion at the site. The results state that while 1,288 people choose one of the three second runway options, 2,165 people selected ‘none of the above’. Options 1, 2 and 3 outlined various take-off and landing routes as well as possible locations for the second runway. In addition, a further 4,003 people voted ‘none of the above’ as a result of a letter sent out by the Woodland Trust to its members, but these results were discounted because it was classed as an organised campaign. However these additional votes were included in an independent report from market research company Ipsos Mori, which acknowledges that a total of 7,717 responses were received.
12 August 2014 – The resident’s group Stanwell Moor Residents Association are aiming to contest Heathrow Airport’s plans for an incinerator and car park in the area. Chairwoman Kathleen Croft said they were worried about development in the area as well as traffic and pollution.
12 August 2014 – Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport have announced an increase in the demand for routes to Eastern Europe.
12 August 2014 – Plans to operate commercial flights to major UK cities from Hawarden Airport in Flintshire have been dropped. The company had invested £1m in a new terminal building last year. The airport shares a runway with the Airbus wing-making plant, which is working on a new taxiway.
12 August 2014 – People living near Stansted Airport have a further three weeks to make their views heard on planned changes to its flight paths. National Air Traffic Services, NATS is proposing to direct the majority of flights which currently head south from the airport to go east instead. NATS insists there will not be any new routes – just new ways of using the existing ones. The consultation ends on September 8.
13 August 2014 – Campaigners in Kent, Surrey and Sussex, who are contesting plans for new flight paths into Gatwick Airport, claim a public consultation into the plans, which closes on Thursday, is ‘flawed’. Gatwick Airport acknowledges some people will see more planes overhead but argues the plans to concentrate passenger aircraft on narrower flight paths is part of a wider EU plan and is needed to ease congestion in the skies (link contains video footage).
13 August 2014 – The campaign group, Taxpayers’ Alliance has called on Thanet Council to end any purchase of Manston Airport because they believe it would not represent value for money to ‘local taxpayers’. The group which lobbies for reduced taxes, says the airport would cost Thanet’s residents £3.65 million a year if the council went ahead with a compulsory purchase order.
14 August 2014 – Development work to expand and upgrade Luton Airport is set to start in early 2015. Last month the airport was given final planning consent for a £100 million development, which it is intended will increase annual passenger capacity from 12 million to 18 million per year by 2031.
15 August 2014 – Member of Parliament for Horsham, Francis Maude has written about complaints he has received from residents being overflown by aircraft taking off and landing at Gatwick Airport. 17 August 2014 – Member of Parliament for Mole Valley, Sir Paul Beresford, has also added his voice to concerns over the flight path changes at Gatwick.
Industry News
11 August 2014 – All parts of the airline operator Monarch’s operations are being subjected to a strategic review, which is expected to lead to significant changes in the ownership structure. The company have confirmed that it is reviewing ‘all areas of the business from operations to ownership and financing’. 14 August 2014 – Monarch Airlines has also confirmed that it will end all charter flying at the end of the winter and operate only scheduled flights from next April. A spokeswoman said some existing charters might be cut while others will switch to scheduled services. 17 August 2014 – The Sunday Times has reported that 1,000 jobs could be at risk at the airline operator Monarch, while it undergoes restructuring. The airline is reported to be on target to lose up to £60m this year.
11 August 2014 – Heathrow and Gatwick Airports are both claiming that record passenger numbers in July show they should be allowed to expand at the expense of the other.
8 August 2014 – A temporary airspace restriction will be put in place around a forthcoming NATO Summit in Newport, South Wales, the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has announced. The restriction, in place from 3 – 5 September 2014, will cover a broad area from Bristol in the east, to Bridgend in the west, and from Crickhowell in the north, to the Somerset coast in the south. The restricted area will extend from surface up to flight level 105 (around 10,000ft). The temporary airspace restriction, or RA(T), is being established at the request of Gwent Police and South Wales Police as part of the overall security arrangements for the Summit, which is expected to be attended by a number of heads of state and senior ministers. The restrictions will not affect commercial passenger flights to and from Bristol and Cardiff airports, however.
14 August 2014 – The British Chambers of Commerce and Heathrow Airport have organised a series of events across the country to hear business opinion on the aviation capacity debate. As part of the series Sheffield Chamber will host a ‘One Hub or None’ seminar on September 11. The Chair of the Sheffield Chamber Transport Forum and Chairman is opposed to any expansion in the south east of England and would prefer to see expansion of Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield Airport
15 August 2014 – NATS has published an update of progress against its 3Di performance metric.
15 August 2014 – East Midlands Airport saw annual earnings rise by 26 per cent to £16.4 million in its last financial year.
European News
12 August 2014 – Approval has been granted for a planning application submitted by Fraport AG to build a third Terminal on the southern area of Frankfurt Airport. The development will see construction of a modular design building, with the first phase construction of a central terminal building with two gates and a terminal with a capacity of 14 million passengers per annum. Fraport AG says it expects the first phase of Terminal 3 will cost about €2 billion, and work is set to start in 2015, with completion by 2021.
15 August 2014 – London City Airport has been granted Airports Council International Europe’s Airport Carbon Accreditation, Level 2. The Airport Carbon Accreditation process encourages decreasing the amount of carbon emissions. London City is the UK’s fifth airport to be given Level 2 accreditation.
Government News
14 August 2014 – The Office for National Statistics has published the statistical bulletin ‘Overseas Travel and Tourism, Provisional Results for June 2014’. Key points from the bulletin include: visits to the UK by overseas residents continue to rise and are up 8 per cent year to date (January to June), with holiday visits up 12 per cent in the same period; over the last twelve months, estimates of earnings from overseas residents to the UK continue to rise and are up 7 per cent; and visits abroad by UK residents are up 5 per cent over the last twelve months but their expenditure has decreased 3 per cent in the same period. The full report is available from the link above.
Media News
11 August 2014 – The campaign group, Let Britain Fly has released a series of video conversations with ‘senior business leaders’ about why they believe expanding airports in the south east of England is ‘fundamental to the future success and growth of businesses and the UK economy’ – the video conversations are available here.
12 August 2014 – The coach company National Express has announced that it is adding new services to and from Heathrow Airport equating to over 100,000 extra seats per year. The extra seats will be available on routes to all Heathrow terminals from Wales and the south west of England including from Cardiff, Swansea, Newport, Bristol, Swindon and Bath.
SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin 11 August – 17 August
SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin 11 August – 17 August
There will be a reduced Parliamentary service over the summer while both Houses are in recess