Planning. But not for climate change

By Anonymous on 09/06/2008
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Planning Bill

The Planning Bill currently making its way through Parliament is yet another kick in the teeth for British democracy. The Bill has been cooked up to allow central command to force roads, runways and nuclear power stations onto unwilling communities without having to listen to any of their bleating about it in the process.

Brown's lot like to point to wind farms when asked about the reasoning behind this obviously anti-democratic piece of legislation. But this week they demonstrated quite clearly the true motivation behind it – by voting against an amendment that would have meant Ministers had to demonstrate every major infrastructure project's role in the mitigation of climate change before granting it permission.

Since that would have been, hmm - a bit hard for the new generation of coal fired power stations and airport expansions they've got their little hearts set on, they quite sensibly threw out the amendment. In doing so, they have nailed their true colours to the mast – and none of those colours is green. It's time to dust off the D-locks and start gearing up to fight a carbon hungry development near you. Once this Bill has been passed there'll be no other way to stop it.

Green Wing, greenwash

By Richard on 06/06/2008
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Green Wing 1

The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change research says we can't have unlimited aviation growth while still meeting our climate change targets - you know, the ones that try to stop us making life on earth rather unpleasant. The airlines disagree, of course - and spend large amounts of money telling us that you can have your cake and eat it too.

Someone forwarded me the Green Wing page of the British Airways magazine, where Willie Walsh answers your questions about the environment. They weren't very impressed by what they read: "I would have thought that questions about the link between aviation and the environment might relate to matters such as unnecessary flights within Britain and to Brussels and Paris or maybe even querying why we need to increase the number of flights which would require a third runway at Heathrow. But no. The top three questions that the world wants Willie to answer are:

"Would a third runway at Heathrow reduce the incidence of planes being put in a holding pattern and burning extra fuel? Does BA support the communities of developing nations? Are you planning to reduce the amount of packaging used in your meals?"

Ryanair's skint, BA's broke and still they want to expand

By Richard on 03/06/2008
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No, no, no

Gloomy times ahead for troubled airlines: Ryanair announced today that it's going to have to raise prices to cover fuel prices. It's also expecting to ground 10% of its fleet over the winter. If I was prone to anthrompomorphism I'd be talking about the planet heaving a sigh of relief.

Meanwhile BA is considering the budget model - charging for food, check-in and sick bags - again because of rising oil prices. Aviation fuel is skyrocketing, caused partly by a decade or two of unrepressed demand. All those nonsense flights to places you can't spell have sucked up a good deal of oil, and oil producers can't refine it fast enough to satisfy everyone.

Of course any sensible government might take this as a good time to drop their plans to expand Heathrow (and every other airport, just about). After all, with prices rising demand for flights will fall, and that kind of negates the need to turn an ancient village into a runway. So the industry turns to it's figure heads - in this case IATA Director General Giovanni
Bisignani, who slated the UK's airports infrastructure at the annual IATA piss-up. "This year's Worst Regulator Award goes to the UK Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). Look at Heathrow. Service levels are a national embarrassment." Oh well, if he say's it's terrible we'd better expand, eh?

BAA's T5 cock-up loses them £62 million

By Richard on 29/05/2008
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Lego airport

Call me a softy, but I'm starting to feel sorry for the aviation industry. Last weekend we learnt that one airline a week is going out of business in the US, while oil prices have forced Australian flagship Quantus to ground some of its fleet. Then came the cherry on the cake: BAA, the UK's least popular airport owner, made a loss of £62 million in the first three months of 2008.

Quick to rustle up an excuse, the Heathrow bosses blamed the fiasco at T5, although seeing as this was entirely their fault, is a bit like saying "we're broke because we're crap" - not an excuse, but a reason. Apparently they were so determined to get the opening right that they spent £24 million on security and the like - presumably to keep out the scruffy protesters who flash mobbed them.

Sadly this loss just makes their selling Gatwick or Stansted all the more likely, increasing competition between airports and, as the Competition Commission made clear, increasing the calls for unbridled airport expansion - although if BAA keep losing money like this, they'll have to scale back their plans to bury Sipson under the tarmac...

The free market strikes again (and again, and again)

By Anonymous on 27/05/2008

Haymarket riots

Could it be that rising oil prices are doing what environmentalists have been trying to do for ages: putting one airline a week out of business in the US? This bash on head for the US aviation industry is free market economics at its best: unregulated and unaccountable. The "invisible hand", guiding capitalism whilst righting the wrongs of social justice and environmental destruction. Or so they would us believe.

What's causing this jump in oil prices which is decimating the industry? According to an oil trader I was chatting to recently, the reason for the price hike was speculation. Pure speculation, and lots of it. But it's hardly surprising. This particular trader works for himself buying and selling oil. By the time he buys his oil he has sold it. Almost instantly. He buys oil and sells it in the same second. You could say he doesn’t have trouble shifting his goods, but he’s not shifting anything at all. It's all imaginary (his words not mine).

Given that this oil hungry world can’t leave a barrel on the shelf for more than a second, it's no wonder that the big-bellied beasts of the sky are beginning to go hungry. But don't be too quick to celebrate. The crazy speculation of maddened arch-capitalists is also driven up food prices, causing food riots across the global south. Will the minority of 'cheap' flight addicted Westerners start rioting when there's no more flights from Heathrow to Manchester? It's hardly Haymarket, is it?

The party's over: end of cheap flights, says BA

By Richard on 23/05/2008
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Party cat

Anyone else feel like we're balanced on the edge of a cliff right now, looking down? The head of British Airways, Willie Walsh, seems to, predicting rising oil prices will bring about the end of the 'cheap' flight extravaganza. Yesterday oil hit $135 / barrel, promoting Ministers to utter the word "crisis" in muted tones around the corridors of Whitehall.

Meanwhile aviation fuel is at $1,350 / tonne and rising, and US flagship American Airlines has started charging customers for breathing (well, for checking in luggage and stuff). Back in Blighty airline CEOs are studying bottom lines as never before, trying to squeeze those margins ever tighter. Self-appointed experts predict that we could be seeing bankrupt carriers by the end of the year, and profit warnings from many others.