Contents
SASIG 2013/14 Meeting Dates
Regional News
Industry News
European News
Parliamentary News
House of Commons -Oral Question
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
6 September 2014 – Member of Parliament for Wealden Charles Hendry has criticised the Chief Executive of Gatwick Airport in light of the Airports Commission decision to rule out the Thames Estuary airport proposal. Mr Hendry was responding to comments made by Stewart Wingate who said Gatwick was the only viable option left on the Commission shortlist because it could be delivered with more certainty than the options at Heathrow Airport.
6 September 2014 – Residents living in and around the Ascot area have called for flight trials out of Heathrow Airport to be suspended. The airport and the air services provider NATS began the five-month trial of the potential new flight paths in August. Some residents have described the noise as ‘unrelenting’. An online petition has been set up demanding the trials are stopped – the online petition states, ‘residents can see the planes very clearly from their gardens, and the noise is so loud now it disturbs any conversation they have outside’.
6 September 2014 – The rail operator ‘Go-Ahead Group’ has said it is working on plans to improve access to Gatwick Airport. Go-Ahead intends to introduce what it calls a more ‘flyer-friendly layout’ on 108 railcars, featuring more space for bags and better door access.
6 September 2014 – The Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne has agreed to look into a suggestion for a rail link to Leeds-Bradford Airport, after meeting with local Member of Parliament for Pudsey Mr Stuart Andrew. The Chancellor said any worked-up proposal would be considered after talks that also included Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin.
8 September 2014 – Balfour Beatty is to sell Blackpool Airport stating that the company’s strategy had changed, and it wants to end its involvement in running regional airports. The day to day management of Blackpool is currently in the hands of ‘Regional & City Airports’, a division of the Rigby Group Plc, whose many aviation activities include Coventry, Derry, Exeter and Norwich airports, British International Helicopters and Patriot Aerospace. Blackpool Airport said it would be sold as a going concern and it was ‘business as usual’ and flights would continue.
9 September 2014 – The UK Civil Aviation Authority has been criticised for failing to notify residents around London City Airport about potential changes to air traffic currently under consideration. The proposed route includes Bow, Leyton, Leytonstone, Wanstead and Barkingside.
9 September 2014 – Uttlesford District Council has called for ‘extreme care’ to be taken over proposals to change departure routes from Stansted Airport.
10 September 2014 – According to a report by the Airport Operators Association (AOA) 5,761 homes have either been granted planning permission, started or completed construction close enough to an airport that significant annoyance from noise is deemed likely, since April 2011. Ahead of the report launched the AOA have also said that ‘the Government needs to incentivise the take-up of sustainable aviation fuels, including establishing a clear policy framework to stimulate production and investment’.
11 September 2014 – Luton Airport have said that an increase in noise and aircraft flying over Stevenage and North Hertfordshire is a result of extra summer flights.
14 September 2014 – Gatwick Airport have recommended appointing a ‘monitoring trustee’ in its latest submission to the Airports Commission. It is proposed that the trustee would act on behalf of communities to make sure the airport’s commitments are carried out. The trustee would have access to Gatwick personnel, be entitled to inspect the airport’s documents and report on its performance to relevant bodies, including local authorities.
Industry News
6 September 2014 – London City Airport is consulting on proposals to modernise its flight paths, to allow the introduction of Area Navigation (RNAV), superseding the ground-based navigational systems used currently. The consultation is a statutory requirement according to Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) regulations. The London City Airport proposal seeks to replicate the existing conventional flight paths with equivalent RNAV routes. The concept is not optional – a legal mandate is being introduced by the Civil Aviation Authority which will require all aircraft to be equipped to navigate using RNAV by November 2017, and a mandate for the airspace to provide RNAV routes is expected to be effective by winter 2019. The proposed changes are key to achieving network efficiency and reducing delays in the south and are an important part of the London Airspace Management Programme (LAMP), NATS’ wider programme to modernise the air route system over London and the south east. The consultation runs until 27 November 2014
Class F airspace has been established for many years in the UK Flight Information Regions (FIR) in the form of Advisory Routes (ADRs). These ADRs will be replaced either by Class E ‘airways’, which will be designated as Transponder Mandatory Zones (TMZs), or returned to Class G airspace. However, the dimensions of the new Class E airways will not necessarily mirror the exact dimensions of the ADRs they replace, the CAA pointed out. In addition to some revised base and upper levels, the new airways also include extra airspace in the vicinity of the Aberdeen CTR/CTA.
Although Class E is controlled airspace, in which an air traffic control service is provided to IFR aircraft only, VFR aircraft may also operate within it and do not require a ‘clearance’ or need to be in contact with ATC, they will, however, require a functioning Mode S SSR transponder. VFR aircraft operating without a transponder can access the airspace, but must first establish two-way radio contact with air traffic control before entering. VFR flights that request an air traffic service will be assisted with either a Basic or a Traffic Service, subject to the operational capacity of the air traffic unit. Additional procedures are to be introduced to accommodate gliding activity through airway N560 between the Scottish TMA northern boundary and Inverness. Details of the changes, which come into force on 13 November 2014, are now available on the AIS website www.nats-uk.ead-it.com. The CAA’s decision concerning the replacement of Class F was published on 8 August 2014. The document includes a map showing the main revised airspace arrangements.
8 September 2014 – The airline operator Qantas has cancelled five return A380 flights over the next two months between Dubai and London because of what it has called ‘weak seasonal demand’.
8 September 2014 – Dubai has announced plans to invest £19.8bn into the country’s Al Maktoum International Airport which could potentially see it expand to accommodate 240m passengers a year – making it the biggest airport in the world following the expansion. It is anticipated that the first of the two phases of development will take between six and eight years to complete.
11 September 2014 – A consortium of electric vehicle manufacturers have developed a network of rapid charge electrical points across the UK. It is anticipated that the network will provide EV-friendly links to major ports and cities including Stranraer, Liverpool, Holyhead, Birmingham, Felixstowe, Leeds and Kingston upon Hull, as well as five international airports. Members of the joint project include Nissan, BMW, VW and Renault. Once completed, the Rapid Charge Network will comprise of 70 multi-standard rapid chargers covering 1,100km. This will ensure that EV drivers can travel long distances, secure in the knowledge that they will be in close proximity to a charger.
12 September 2014 – Gatwick Airport broke a series of records in August 2014 – the airport had its busiest month in its entire history with 4.362 million passengers. This was an increase of 8.2 per cent on August 2013, representing an additional 330,300 passengers. The airport also handled the take-off and landing of 906 planes in a single day (August 29) making it the most efficiently operated single runway airport in the world.
11 September 2014 – London Luton Airport has replaced all the buses serving its on-site car parks with a fleet of Mercedes Citaro buses – chosen primarily for their environmental performance.
European News
9 September 2014 – The Department of Energy and Climate Change, Department for Transport and Devolved Administrations consultation on implementing the Aviation EU Emissions Trading System Regulation (421/2014) in UK Regulations launched on Monday 11th August 2014, will be closing on Monday 22 September 2014. Full consultation details can be found here.
10 September 2014 – Slovak diplomat Maroš Šefčovič is to take on the transport portfolio in the new European Commission. He takes over a revamped space and transport portfolio from Siim Kallas. As Commissioner for Space and Transport, he will have responsibility for ensuring that Europe’s transport infrastructure functions efficiently and promoting the interconnections necessary to facilitate the development of the internal market- key tasks include advancing the work on Trans-European Transport Networks, mobilising instruments available under the Connecting Europe Facility and maximising synergies with the implementation of the European Structural and Investment Funds at national and regional level; as well as completing the negotiations of the Fourth Railway package and pursuing the Single European Sky policy.
Parliamentary News
12 September 2014 – The Transport Committee has today published: 3rd Special Report – Putting passengers first: disruption at Gatwick, Christmas Eve 2013: Airport Operators Association (AOA) response to the Committee’s Fourteenth Report of Session 2013-14. On 31 March the Transport Select Committee published its report ‘Putting passengers first: disruption at Gatwick, Christmas Eve 2013’. The report considered the causes of disruption at Gatwick towards the end of 2013 and the response from the airport and airlines. Some of the recommendations made in the report are specific to regulated airports, Heathrow and Gatwick, but there are a number which apply to AOA member airports right across the UK. In this paper, the AOA considers those recommendations which are relevant to all airports. The report covers the following topics – Contingency Planning; Information Provision at Bristol Airport, Manchester Airport, London Luton Airport; Passenger Welfare; and The AOA Snow Planning Survey 2012.
House of Commons – Oral Question
Hanson – Employment at Airbus and the importance of the European Union
11 September 2014
David Hanson (Delyn, Labour): Does the Secretary of State accept that companies such as Airbus, which is close to my constituency and which employs thousands of people, are successful and competitive because they work with German, French and Spanish colleagues to produce world-class planes? Does he agree that it is therefore essential that we remain part of a Europe-wide Union to ensure that we remain competitive?
Vince Cable, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Twickenham, Liberal Democrat): The right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The Airbus factory in north Wales is an extraordinarily impressive part of British manufacturing. Most of us who have been there have been overwhelmed by the quality of its work. He is right that it is a European company and that it could not operate on any other basis than as a European network. Another key factor in its success has been the industrial strategy and the support that it receives through the aerospace growth partnership.
Media News
8 September 2014 – An Ipsos Mori poll of 95 Members of Parliament (38 Conservatives, 46 Labour, 8 Liberal Democrats and 3 from other parties) has shown that 58 per cent believe that the best option to solve the issue of the UK’s airport capacity is a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Of those who back a third runway at Heathrow as the best option, nine in ten (91 per cent) believe it will get parliamentary approval.
9 September 2014 – Chief Executive of the Airport Operators Association Darren Caplan has criticised the Liberal Democrats Party’s call for no airport expansion in its pre-election manifesto.
SASIG Regional&IndustryNews Bulletin 6 September – 14 September
SASIG ParliamentaryNews Bulletin 6 September – 14 September
The Parliamentary information in this Bulletin is sourced from De Havilland Information Services plc .