expansion

Taxpayers could end up paying for third runway

By Richard on 16/06/2009
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The airlines are collapsing. Air traffic is down 11%. BA can't afford to pay its staff. Airports are looking more and more like ghost towns. It's bad news all round - and UK tax payers could be asked to bail out the third runway should (or rather, when) BAA and Ferrovial bite the financial dust.

The Government has been planning a belt-and-braces plan to take over BAA's airports should it go into administration. MP John McDonnell - wielder of maces, defender of Hayes and Harlington - discovered that we'd end up spending tax revenue on the expansion itself.

"We know the Government is going to have to pay for the collateral damage in terms of the impact on the local communities, the shift of populations, the new schools, the creation of new communities elsewhere for these people to live," he told the House of Commons.

"We now believe there will be direct subsidy as a result of BAA's precarious financial position and the precarious financial position of Grupo Ferrovial globally (BAA's parent company) and that we will have to actually subsidise the development itself, the construction of the runway and the terminal."

No, said Transport Minister and runner up in the 2004 Medway bullfrog lookalike competition Paul Clark. Heathrow was so awesome we just had to have more of it. He did make one concession though: Heathrow expansion should not come "at any price".

Given that the price is already the communities of Sipson and Harmonsworth, the undermining of our carbon reduction targets, the breaching of EU NOx levels, the health and wellbeing of most of London and more bloody flights to nowhere, just what price does the amphibious Minister think is too high to pay?

Plane Stupid goes guerilla gardening

By Lily on 29/05/2009
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Source: Flickr

Bank holiday Monday, the noise of airplanes passing overhead, Heathrow airport casting its long shadow and the roar of diggers in Sipson. Is it all over I hear you ask? Did BAA slip their nefarious plans for a third runway through despite the weight of public opposition? Fear not, for this bank holiday heralded not the destruction of the Heathrow villages, but the arrival of Guerilla Gardeners on BAA's doorstep.

In the aftermath of the Chelsea Flower Show, the left over plants have found themselves an illustrious new home. Armed with trowels and hoses, and with the expert guidance of Chelsea gardener Tom Hoblyn, we descended on Sipson, Harmondsworth and Harlington on Monday for a spot of illicit gardening, transplanting the horticultural stars of Chelsea into new homes under the shadow of the flightpath.

Check out the photos on Flickr

Together with residents from all three villages, activists from the Climate Rush, guerilla gardening experts and, of course, Plane Stupid spent a sweltering bank holiday beautifying the very villages BAA would like to decimate to build a third runway at Heathrow. The mood on the day was, despite the government giving the go-ahead to the plans, one of hope. We were working together, united in our opposition to the economically and scientifically unviable plans.

We were investing both time and energy into the future of the Heathrow villages, comfortable in the knowledge that the third runway will never be built. And if they try, we won't be gardening Sipson when we go back, but fortifying it. We'll swap strawberry plants and lilies for superglue and lock-ons, but the message will be the same, resident and activist alike: we don't want your runway, we don't want your runway, na na na na, na na na...

Eurovision Flashmob: airport exansion is out of tune with the public

By Anonymous on 26/05/2009
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Source: Flickr

Is it ever possible to be really tacky and make a really serious political point at the same time? Probably not, but aviation campaigners from around Europe had a go on the day of the Eurovision Song Contest. On 16th May campaigners from six airports across Europe staged Flash Mobs in their terminal buildings. And sang their country’s entry to the Eurovision Song Contest!

Hundreds of people flashed their red t-shirts, emblazoned with the words ‘Stop Airport Expansion’ at Heathrow, Frankfurt, Schiphol (Amsterdam), Brussels, Dublin and Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris. The result was a seriously kitch display of bad taste and bad singing. Check out the Flickr photostream if you don't believe me!

Over the past few years there have been growing links between aviation campaigners in the different countries of Europe. The industry is determined to play each airport off against each other, so we're building up a Europe-wide movement to resist them. These wonderfully tacky flash mobs, where campaigners gave ‘nul points’ to the aviation industry, were a very visible sign that this is beginning to happen.

Colin Matthews: sneak preview!

By Richard on 14/05/2009
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So yesterday we were proud to announce a collaborative comedy performance starring none other than BAA's Colin Matthews - a man known throughout the business community as a bit of a laughing stock. Colin is performing his one man show at City University on Tuesday the 19th of May - and hundreds of you are eagerly preparing to cancel some pretty hot dates to make it there.

But while the activist community was getting itself nicely worked up, Colin thought you weren't excited enough. After a quick chat with our event department, he decided that what you needed a little more encouragement. So we arranged for a special sneak preview of his forthcoming show on the Guardian's blog site, comedyisfree. A taster, if you will, of all the mirth and merriment that is to come next Tuesday.

And what mirth! What merriment! Who could fail to laugh their socks off when Colin quipped that a third runway was needed because "Leeds/Bradford and Durham Tees Valley airports both lost their links to Heathrow as airlines shuffled their slots"? What a joker: they lost their links because - wait for it - the flight was more expensive and took longer than a nice trip on the train! And I hear that his punch line, "we should all be concerned that Frankfurt has direct links with six Chinese cities" brought the house down in many a West London community.

So cancel your dinner date and ignore that anarchist meeting you were going to attend. Hop on your private jet and fly into City University, Tuesday 19th of March for a one-night-only comedy extravaganza. Tickets are free, but be quick! 

One night only: BAA's Colin Matthews to star in secret comedy performance

By Richard on 13/05/2009
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OK people, get your diaries open. Following extensive talks between Plane Stupid and BAA, we can exclusively reveal that we've arranged for an exclusive gig by none other than all-time comedy legend, Colin Matthews, next Tuesday, at City University. Tickets are free, but strictly limited, so register early (and often!).

To get your free tickets, email eventsrsvp@city.ac.uk. These are dangerous times, so they'll be checking ID on the door, so don't go leaving your driver's license at home!

Colin is BAA's supremo, and well renowned as an excellent wit. We knew he'd be up to a real challenge, so we've asked him to talk about - wait for it - "the planned delivery of a £4 billion capital investment and construction programme and the development of a third runway at Heathrow, built within strict environmental limits", or, as one bright spark put it "the runway I would have built, before it all went so very, very wrong".

Of course, trying to build a runway within strict environmental limits will be hilarious in itself, but we're sure that Colin will bring that extra spark of genius to the table. After all, BAA are known for their hilarious press releases, including "why we tried to stop 5 million people using the Picadilly line" and "sorry our staff got caught impersonating Stansted residents".

So don't miss your once in a lifetime chance to laugh long and hard at Colin Matthews. You can sign up online, and tell your mates! It's guaranteed to be the best stand up performance by any BAA CEO on a Tuesday in May - or your money back!

Fat cats revolt over Heathrow

By Richard on 03/05/2009
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Why is the Government so keen to expand Heathrow airport? According to Jo Valentine, head of London First, a self-appointed bunch of fat cats who claim to speak for the forces of capital, it's to "stay ahead of our rivals... box clever and play to our strengths". We ran this through an Apprentice to English translator, and apparently it means "to enable more fiscal gamblers in the City to nip over to Monaco on expenses".

Valentine has always declared that businesses want to fly more, and what business wants, Labour provides. Except that businesses don't want to fly more: they just want Heathrow to work. Many of the smarter ones have been sending their staff by train wherever possible, because there's more opportunities for them to be working, and less time spent reading Jeffrey Archer novels in the departure lounge. In Apprentice speak, this is a "win-win" and a "no-brainer".

So it's no surprise that various business people have started speaking out against the third runway. According to the Sunday Times, a coalition of chief executives of leading companies including Justin King of J Sainsbury, Charles Dunstone of Carphone Warehouse, Ian Cheshire of Kingfisher, and Sir Roy Gardner, chairman of Compass have been calling Number 10 and asking them to stop trying to flatten Sipson.

Ian Cheshire told the paper, which has been critical of expansion for some time now, "We feel strongly that the real business case for this expansion has not been made. A business perspective on the situation would focus much more on how we restructure existing resources at Heathrow, with high-speed rail and options at other airports, before pushing ahead with more capacity that seems to be driven by transit-passenger growth rather than improving Heathrow as a hub for UK plc."

I'm not so sure that Downing Street is listening: they're too busy trying to get jobs at British Airways. Oh well, never mind. Instead, why not ponder this lovely photo of planes on a fat cat. And some jelly snakes. No, I don't get it either...

Frankfurt airport expansion meets determined local opposition

By Anonymous on 28/04/2009
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I've just got back - by coach, thanks for asking - from meeting campaign groups opposing expansion at Frankfurt airport. The authorities want a fourth runway, and expansion is justified on the same sort of grounds as our third runway: Frankfurt's financial centre will collapse; it will bring jobs; flights will go to other airports; passengers will choose to change planes at other hub airports, etc.

The owners have already cut down a million trees to make way for it. This is a travesty of the highest order, and stirring up some emotional memories. Over thirty years ago the woods were the scene of some of the fiercest and most famous protests in German history, as tens of thousands of people fought to stop a third runway being built. There was virtually civil war when the authorities tried to remove the protestors. The protest had a profound effect in Germany, helping radicalise a generation and kickstarting the nascent green movement.

But it also left many campaigners dispirited. They had fought – and lost – the biggest and most dramatic campaign against airport expansion ever seen in Europe. This time round they have concentrated on legal challenges, but so far without success. And while the woods were occupied again, it was largely by younger environmental activists. They held out for nine months but were evicted earlier this year. There still is a small camp, which we visited, but is not on the site of the new runway.

This summer the young activists are planning a Climate Camp, like there was at Heathrow two years ago, in the woods near the airport to which activists from across Europe will be invited. The local residents are pursuing their legal challenges. There are major campaigns against airport expansion in other German cities - notably at Munich and Stuttgart where last year 15,000 people marched against a new runway - and a burgeoning direct action movement. If the Frankfurt campaigners can persuade these other campaigners to join them this summer, they have a fighting chance of success.

Check out my photos from the trip on our Flickr photostream.

Gatwick bidders are too skint to buy airport

By Richard on 27/04/2009
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After a week in which we learnt that all the Gatwick bidders wanted a second runway we learn that none of them can even afford to buy the airport. Gatwick has turned into a 2-bed flat in Streatham, with buyers lying to get a mortgage and the owner hinting at conservatories and loft extensions.

Which presumably makes the credit rating agency, Standards and Poor's, a bit like the credit crunch in this over-stretched metaphor, shaking the property ladder and laughing as your chain collapses under the weight of its own bluster. They've refused to give any of the bidders an appropriate credit rating if they borrow more than £800 million - half of the airport's already reduced cost. Just last summer Gatwick was meant to cost £2 billion, but it's now down to £1.6 billion; today's news means it's likely to sell for even less.

BAA is clearly unhappy and trying to talk up the value; hence last week's scare stories about more runway potential. Returning to our metaphor, BAA wants buyers to think that Gatwick is a real fixer-upper, despite being poorly served by transport links and probably suffering from subsidence. An airport which can expand is worth more than one which can't, but it's worth nothing if your buyers can't afford it. S&P doesn't think much of these bids: one was described as "an aggressive financial risk profile characterised by relatively high debt leverage as demonstrated by an opening debt/RAB ratio of 54pc". I have no idea what that means, but it doesn't sound very good.

Perhaps now is a good time to remind BAA that Plane Stupid is happy to buy the airport, and that we'll close it and turn it into a newt sanctuary. Stopping all those flights is worth a fortune in carbon credits, and we'll give all the airport's staff jobs looking after our amphibian friends. BAA, if you're listening, just give us a call. Newts are cute and deserve a new home.

Stern: Heathrow expansion makes no sense

By Richard on 22/04/2009
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Could this be the week when sensible comments from people with some tangental relation to power started taking over the political landscape? Nicholas Stern, writer of that infamous page-turner, the Stern Review of the Economics of Climate Change, has launched a savage attack on Heathrow's expansion, which, he claimed does not "make sense in the context of a coherent carbon and transport policy for the UK, and... for Europe as a whole". Take that, expansionists!

It's as though the entire world is reacting to the launch of Pet Air, coming together in a mass outpouring of sensible to counter that enterprise's stunning levels of pointlessness. Heathrow's decision, Stern said, should only have been taken once the Committee on Climate Change had had a chance to look into the detail. He also dismissed the fiscal-stimulus (a.k.a. pouring money into high-carbon industries just so the UK can be proud of it's Chinese-owned car industry) as "undermin[ing] confidence in the UK's ability to meet its climate change target." Well, duh!

This sort of sensible outpouring is not what we've come to expect from the Government and their advisors. The Department for Transport is so in bed with big carbon that we just shrug when officials turn Kew Gardens into Terminal Seven or convert the West Midlands into a motorway. Suddenly I start hearing rumours that a senior Government Minister thinks domestic aviation in this day and age is the epitome of madness! Any more sensible comments and I might have to revise my opinions and stuff.

Brakes put on Leeds-Bradford expansion

By Richard on 21/04/2009
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After writing the last blog I had to hide myself in a darkened room to recover from a bought of despair brought on by wanton idiocy. There I was, knees hugged to chest, repeating "we're not all going to die because of flying pets" when a new email arrived in my inbox. Stupidity, it seems, is not widespread: councillors in Leeds have rejected plans to expand Leeds-Bradford airport because - shock horror - it would increase CO2 emissions.

The airport currently handles 3 million people, so its owners decided that it would be just perfect with another 2 million plonked on top. Unsurprisingly this would lump the local community with traffic jams, pollution and increase greenhouse gas emissions. Greenpeace reckon that the expanded airport would be emitting more than the whole of the city of Leeds.

Rejecting this expansion seems to have taken everyone by surprise, with the BBC running a piece about how it was all getting the go ahead, and much shocked whinging from the self-appointed guardians of progress: the business community. Witness prize buffoon Sandy Needham, chief executive of the Leeds Chamber of Pollution, bleating on about "cogs" and "private-public partnerships" like a lemon.

By the way, can we clear one thing up right now? The expansion is not "expected to create 3,000 jobs": modern terminals use far fewer staff per passenger than older ones (more computers and automation, you see) and low-cost airlines, like Flybe and BMI, use far fewer staff than 'flagship' carriers. The only people who actually think 3,000 jobs would be created are the pseudo-journalists who scribe for local papers (a thankless task consisting of selecting a company's press release and hitting Ctrl-C and Ctrl-V in quick succession).