expansion

What planet is Walsh on?

By Richard on 03/02/2008
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Metal Earth

It's Sunday, and I'm feeling generous. So let's take a moment to consider the plight of BA boss-man Willie Walsh. British Airways used to be a national institution: the airline into whose arms we collapsed after a week of dealing with our inability to speak other languages. Now it's associated with losing your luggage, strikes, crash landings, lying about climate change and blackmailing pensioners.

Walsh's latest misguided scheme is to persuade local councils to support expansion. Local papers around the airport picked up a BA press release, which urged councils to back the third runway. The same councils which formed the 2M group to oppose expansion. The phrase "coals to Newcastle" springs to mind...

BA blackmails former staff for Heathrow support

By Richard on 01/02/2008
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BA planes

Sometimes you read an article which is truly shocking. This, dear readers, is one of them. British Airways has been sending leaflets to retired staff, claiming that their pensions are at risk if the third runway doesn't get the green light.

The leaflet urges former employees to write to Ruth Kelly in support of expansion, claiming that their pensions depend upon Heathrow's expansion. A quote in large print from Sigrid Mapp, chairman of the Liason council, which represents retired staff, says: "As pensioners, the security of our pensions depends directly on the longterm success of British Airways and that again depends on the success of Heathrow."

BA have already been rebuked by the Advertising Standards Agency for making false claims about the environmental impact of the third runway in a letter to frequent flyers. Frankly, making nonsense claims to the biggest polluters pales into insignificance compared with blackmailing elderly people who've devoted their lives for your company. If this is how low the aviation industry is sinking, then the forces of opposition must be doing something right...

What price expansion?

By Richard on 28/01/2008
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Money, it'a a crime

As the end of the Heathrow consultation gets closer, the eyes of the business community turn towards BAA. Expansion can reap financial rewards for investors, and those fat cats in trading houses across the City are always seeking to make some bucks. But is BAA a good investment opportunity?

Not according to the Times, which has dug up a report by investment bank JP Morgan. Those bankers aren't feeling optimistic about the company, claiming that “Based on existing capex facilities [the loan available to pay for capital expenditure] we expect BAA could run out of cash in Q1-2 2009”.

Ouch! Not what Stephen Nelson and his cronies want you to hear. But it's not the first time that analysts have doubted BAA's finances. Last month the Sunday Times reported that BAA was to make a year-end test of whether it was in breach of the covenants on some its loans, and last year we reported that financiers had downgraded BAA's economic status to 'junk'. Looks like that third runway might be a longer shot than we'd thought...

What price a butterfly?

By Chris on 26/01/2008
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Butterfly Dance

The existence of nature has always vexed developers and transport planners. Desmoulin's whorl snail famously held up the Newbury by-pass, and the massive extra costs of moving protected species has often thrown a monkey wrench into the digger (to mix metaphors). But now a solution for developers may be on the horizon.

Defra have created a process whereby they can assign a figure on nature's existence. From now on all you need do to build an airport is show that you'll get more 'value' from the airport than that provided by the creatures you destroy to build it.

Third runway not enough says BAA

By Richard on 23/01/2008
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Runway 4

Anyone who thought BAA understood 'sustainable aviation' should think again. Under interview by the London Assembly's Environmental Committee, chief exec Stephen Nelson refused to rule out a fourth runway, saying that claiming the third runway was the end of expansion would make him a "hostage to fortune".

BAA has repeatedly promised that each round of expansion would be the last. In 1995, according to the Times, BAA stated in its official newsletter: "BAA has said repeatedly that Terminal 5 will not lead to a third runway. BAA has said repeatedly THERE WILL NOT BE A THIRD RUNWAY. And BAA has been proved right. The Secretary of State has accepted the BAA view. The issue has been settled; people’s concerns have been met. What now of those who claimed BAA was not telling the truth?"

What now indeed. Apparently the areas currently up for consideration for runway four are north of the airport alongside the M4 or to the south, wiping out the villages of Bedfont and Stanwell. Needless to say, both options would require the demolition of thousands of homes. Hardly likely to engender more support for their latest plan, is it?

You noble residents all, stand up now, stand up now

By Richard on 21/01/2008
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Putney Debates

They may not be the Putney Debates, but there's not a lot in it. Residents' meetings held throughout West London have been so over-subscribed that organisers have had to move the location or turn residents away.

The meeting in Putney saw over 700 people queuing to get into St. Mary's Church ("the biggest attendance at any airport meeting ever organised by the council and the biggest public meeting in 20 years" according to a local councillor). A meeting at Chiswick earlier in the week saw over 1,000 people turn up, and organisers had to persuade the local choir to hold their practice elsewhere. A meeting in Richmond-upon-Thames was attended by over 600 people.

There are meetings all over London (details after the jump), so if you have any questions about the expansion, or if you just want to make your voice heard, make sure you go to one. There's also the Central Hall rally on the 25th of February, so if you only go to one event, make it that one!

Lydd gets stay of execution

By Richard on 19/01/2008
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Guillotine

Nothing epitomises the madness of the airport expansion bubble better than Lydd airport, a strip of tarmac on the Kent coast, with plans to increase passengers from 5,000 per year to 500,000.

Lydd's future was to have been decided on the 30th of January, but the chief executive of Shepway District Council Alistair Stewart has postponed the decision so the council can examine more information on ecological and noise issues. The decision meeting will now take place in two to six months time, and the demonstration called by local campaigners has also been postponed.

BAA-d taste

By Joss on 18/01/2008
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Plane over roof

Some might consider it bad taste to use the near-death of a lot of people to push the third runway agenda. But I haven't been able to switch on the radio today without hearing some aviation industry shill or other trying to use the accident at Heathrow yesterday to justify expansion.

This is pretty ironic given that the accident didn't directly have anything to do with congestion. Jeff Jupp of the Royal Academy of Engineering said: "It certainly looks like a power failure on the approach."

Heathrow expansion rally - be there

By Richard on 18/01/2008
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Heathrow Gasmask

If you only go to one protest on the 25th of February, come to the Central Hall rally against the third runway: two days before the consultation ends.

There will be speakers and the usual sort of stuff, but frankly, that's not as important as your being there. This is the last chance to show the Government the strength of opposition to the expansion plans before the end of the consultation, so get up off the sofa and attend. Monday the 25th of February, 7pm, Central Hall, Westminster.

Oh, and I promise not to sneak off if it starts raining (mostly because the rally's inside).

Plain English Campaign condemns Heathrow consultation

By Richard on 18/01/2008
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Confusion of Tongues

What is a "periodic emissions cost assessment"? Can you eat "net present value terms"? Is "mixed mode operations" something to do with surgery? And just how much are the "external climate change costs"? Welcome to the Heathrow consultation - a toxic blend of civil servant speak and political mumbo-jumbo so bad that the Plain English Campaign ("fighting for crystal-clear communication since 1979") has called for it to be withdrawn and made clearer.

"This document effectively takes away human rights," said founder Chrissie Maher. "No ordinary person with an interest in the plans to expand Heathrow could be expected to read and understand this."

"How can this be a true consultation if most readers cannot understand the document? We've seen this time and time again - local councils and Government departments are always launching consultations'. But they are not real consultations because they design them in such a way that most people are unable to take part."

We couldn't have said it better ourselves...