Richard's blog

Struggling BAA has hired Blair's former spin doctor Tom Kelly in an effort to halt an ever-growing tide of bad publicity. Kelly is notorious for slandering weapons expert David Kelly, who he called a "Walter Mitty" character just days after his suicide.

BAA is facing a difficult winter - with a Transport Select Committee inquiry into it's future, an assault by the Civil Aviation Authority on its landing fee charges and a Competition Commission investigation into its monopoly on airports in the South-East - and hopes the ex-Downing Street adviser's contacts will help them escape unscathed.

Good to see the revolving door just keeps on spinning...

Following today's Times article about our efforts to help BAA find volunteers to test T5, the Spanish version of the Economist has reported a drop in share prices of Ferrovial (down 1.31%) and BAA (down 0.27%).

The two are almost certainly not linked, but it did make us chuckle...

No one said Flying Matters were shrewd at public relations. Their last attempt at advertising consisted of a smear campaign on an Inuit leader - guilty only of caring that his people are suffering from our addiction to weekends in Spain.

But their latest garbled comment, in today's Times article, is a classic attempt to make aviation into the saviour of humanity:

"[Plane Stupid's] actions impact most on those they profess to be protecting: families who holiday once a year, ethnic minorities who rely on air transport to visit family, and farmers in the developing world reliant on UK consumers.”

Not content with holding up passengers while they send their security off to hold fake demos in favour of Stansted expansion, BAA have got caught up in a poisoning scandal after cabin crew at Flybe collapsed mid-flight.

Pilots and cabin crew for budget airline Flybe are refusing to fly on BAe 146s following an incident in which crew had to be taken to hospital after inhaling engine fumes which leaked into the cabin.

Plans to expand Bristol Airport have been put on hold while the airport calculates the impacts of expansion on the environment and local communities.

Airport bosses wanted to submit a planning application to the local council this autumn, but it is now expected that this will happen by the middle of 2008. As with every expansion plan, the airport bosses claim that expansion will only take place if it can be "sustainable"...

Gloucestershire residents fighting the expansion of Gloucestershire airport at Staverton have launched a weekend-long camp, to talk about climate change and aviation.

The family-friendly protest site, called Camp Hope, runs from today (Saturday) through to Sunday, with a variety of educational workshops and activities, including a talk by David Drew MP (details after the jump).

After five months, the inquiry into making maximum use of Stansted's runway has drawn to a close. The inspector's decision is expected before Christmas.

Stop Stansted Expansion described BAA's attempts to justify expanding from 25 million to 35 million passengers per year as "wholly unconvincing", and pointed out that following a dismal inquiry, BAA are now expected to announce that the consultation into the second runway is to be postponed.

The application to expand usage of the existing runway was rejected by Uttlesford Council last year, in what is believed to be the first application to be dismissed on climate change grounds.

What's an airport management company got to do to get a break around here? After a not-so-great summer, it's no wonder that the company decided to relax at its senior management conference with a little light aviation-related humour.

Unfortunately the event fell rather flat when comedian Pam Ann began her performance. Turns out “jokes about terrorism and lewd comments about duty-free lipsticks and bottles of booze” weren't exactly what Chief Executive Stephen Nelson had in mind...