Glos Airport: busiest airfield in UK?

Glos Airport is the busiest in the UK according to a commercial lawyer writing in the local paper! Read on for more on that and various other bits and pieces re Staverton and air travel - yesterday I sent off a load more letters re Stavertons' expansion plans - at the bottom of this entry is the version to SNJ - plus a petition re Heathrow.

Photo: Setting up Camp Hope protest at Staverton

Meanwhile Staverton campaigners had a meeting in Bath on Saturday to look at airport expansions across the region - it was sponsored by the SW Green party but I wasn't able to go due to another meeting - the region faces expansion threats from various airports including: Bristol, Bournemouth (Hurn), Newquay, Gloucestershire (Staverton) Plymouth and Exeter.

Some interesting statistics from the meeting included:
* Recent ICM poll shows that 60% of the public think increasing flights from UK airports is a bad idea in the light of the impact of climate change.
* Annual emissions from flights from Bristol International Airport will make a greater contribution to climate change than several entire nations such as the Gambia, Grenada and Chad, with passenger numbers expected to reach 7 million by next year.
* Overall national CO2 emissions would be decreasing without the increases by aviation.

Hopefully the meeting will result in better links between the various campaign groups - a new email list is being established to coordinate efforts - details hopefully soon - or contact me.

More helicopter flights

All this as we hear in the local press plans for more helicopter flights - "pop stars travelling to festivals including Glastonbury, punters heading for Cheltenham Racecourse's March festival and Formula One at Silverstone have all used Rise Helicopters...Last year was Rise's first year running a shuttle service between the airport and Cheltenham Racecourse for the racing festival and it had 30 customers. Over the three days of the festival the racecourse becomes the busiest airport in the country."

The article goes onto quote Philip Chapman, a commercial lawyer at Willans solicitors ( www.willans.co.uk) who said: "We were delighted to assist in this acquisition, which is designed to strengthen Rise Aviation's services. There is a strong demand for airport capacity in this region. In fact Gloucestershire Airport is one of the busiest airfields in the UK, measured by take-offs and landings."

Private jets - and pets!

In another article the Echo reported that "dogs do not have to be grounded when their high-flying owners go on trips to Europe from Gloucestershire. Private air travel company PropStar Aviation has started carrying pets as part of the package of services it offers." As usual in the report there was no comment at the outrageousness of flying pets - when are these papers going to take responsibilities seriously re climate change?

Staverton is keen to attract more private jets - one campaigner who worked in the industry recently contacted us with various stories - here are some:

Some individuals possess their own aircraft for private use. Often these can be very ostentatious i.e. airliner size fitted out with luxury interiors. Historically, Arab sheiks and the like have taken this route, but Roman Abramovitch (Chelsea owner) has a Boeing 767, which he uses to go to watch Chelsea matches, as well as from business commitments in Russia, and his yacht in France. I think he has a helicopter too, so a typical pattern for a match at Manchester, for example, would be for a helicopter to take him from his home in west London to Luton Airport, then the 767 to Manchester.

The more prevalent usage of private aircraft is by chartering them from numerous firms set up to provide this service. Aircraft available come in a vast range of models, mainly at the low end (4-12 seats), but also some larger types, some in business-class type interiors, some in luxury arrangements. Some of the big aircraft manufacturers have specifically developed variants of their normal models for this market, e.g. the Boeing Business Jet, which is a modified Boeing 737-700. A number of types have very long range capabilities, enabling transatlantic flights and farther.

Use of helicopters for domestic trips also appears to be a fast-growing market, but it is harder to keep tabs on these because obviously their main advantage is that they take people to / from basically anywhere, not just airports.

Most of the firms providing aircraft for charter, are obviously wishing to attract custom, so, subject to being cost-effective, will position aircraft empty to where they are needed. Such trips between the various London-area airports are common, but on the whole market forces mean that most business jet firms locate their aircraft where there is greatest demand. And each aircraft tends to have very low usage, sitting around for long periods waiting for bookings. But when there are really major events, and demand outstrips supply in the local market, aircraft can be chartered from further afield. The newspapers a while ago drew attention to the Prime Minister (I think) using an Austrian business jet because that was all that was available at short notice; and the Rugby World Cup (see later) drew in aircraft from many countries.

One model of operation, however, leads to a greater proportion of empty positioning flights: much like terrestrial taxi services do. I refer to the concept of "fractional ownership". Users effectively pay for a certain number of hours usage of an aircraft per year, i.e. have a share in its total availability. But they can make use of these hours on demand from anywhere to anywhere, subject to giving a few hours notice. (I'm not absolutely sure, but I think it is something like 4 hours notice, and there may be cheaper price packages for longer notice.) The provider caters for this by pooling all the "ownerships", and having a large fleet of aircraft basically operating as a taxi fleet. Because of the on-demand arrangement, this often necessitates aircraft having to position empty to where they are needed (unless they are lucky enough to have someone going "the other way" at a suitable time). The main firm offering this is Netjets. It started in America, and now has subsidiary operations in Europe, and the Middle East. Its fleet is huge, several hundred in Europe alone, and of a range of sizes (another factor in increasing positioning flights if an aircraft of a particular type is needed for a trip).

Although it is obviously impossible to be sure without access to internal information, I wouldn't be surprised therefore if more than a third of their flights were consequently empty positioning flights. Clearly it is in their interests to make these positioning trips as short as possible (but being an international operation their fleet does get widely scattered). Again, flights between the London airports are common. One particular operating practice of this firm is that they always stay within controlled airspace whenever possible (in simple terms, there is controlled airspace where all aircraft are subject to ATC instructions, and uncontrolled airspace where they can do anything they like and separation is on a see-and-be-seen basis). Flights within controlled airspace are hamstrung by standard routes and procedures, and thus tend to be longer. To take an extreme example, to get from London City to Farnborough: outside controlled airspace you can nip round at low level just skirting the central bit near Heathrow, which is not a direct line, but not far off; Netjets, though, choose to stay in controlled airspace, and the route takes them north then west then south then east, skirting Heathrow by about 30 miles - probably 3-4 times longer.

Although "business jets" are used for business flights, taking time-poor executives to "important" meetings, they do appear in greater numbers on Friday afternoons and Sunday evenings, because they appear to be taking the businessman to / from their second homes in France etc. And they come out in their droves for major, and not-so-major sporting events. Over the years that the FA Cup final and other big games were staged at Cardiff, upwards of 20 aircraft commonly took fans from various London airports to Cardiff. For big Manchester United games, 5 or 6 executive jets come in from Dublin (including Chris de Burgh's own aircraft). Almost all Premiership football teams travel to matches by air.

The Rugby World Cup was an extreme event of this nature. Without sounding catty, I think rugby fans do tend to be at the well-heeled end of society, so England's unexpected progress to the final triggered a mass chartering of aircraft. One of the charterers (London Executive Aviation) reported that 17 out of their 18-strong fleet were hired to take fans to Paris, and I expect this was the same for most operators. Certainly, I listened to my aircraft radio between about midnight and 1am after the final (sad I know!) and there was a constant stream (c25 in the hour) of aircraft returning - and their return would have been spread over the Sunday as well. London City airport, which normally has plenty of spare runway capacity on Saturday morning, reported it was booked to capacity.

Ernie Els, who was competing in a golf tournament at Wentworth, I think, chartered an aircraft to fly him immediately after the end of his round to watch a South Africa match the same evening. According to my paper, it would cost £12K to charter a plane for 6 people to go to the Rugby final.


Aviation cuts will hurt economy

This was a recent claim I heard - it is suggested that tourism is responsible for 10.4% of the world's GDP - with Britain as the fifth in annual tourism earners - but as 'Plane Stupid', the campaign group noted there is a lot of double counting - money spent overseas doesn't disappear - it will be spent locally - indeed FoE have some seriously worrying figures showing how much money leaves the country to second homes, third holidays etc rather than being spent locally.

Indeed as one commentator put it "Having the aviation industry get the credit for every pound spent on holiday is like giving black cabs the credit for every pound spent in London."
Lots of journeys by plane are possible and just as quick by train.

Letter to SNJ:

Dear Madam,

Over five years ago Greens wrote to this paper protesting at plans to expand Gloucestershire's Airport at Staverton. Since then the airport have denied plans and in one recent leaked report even denied climate change existed, but there is no doubt expansion is planned.

The SNJ recently ran a competition with free flights on a new service from Staverton as the prize. However this support for increases in aviation flies in the face of science. The latest consensus is that 60% cuts in CO2 emissions will be woefully inadequate: many accept we need 90% cuts. If Staverton expands, what other sector of our economy must cut emissions even harder to 'pay' for this?

Gloucester City and Cheltenham Borough own the airport and Tewkesbury Borough is the planning authority. Here is an opportunity for local authorities to take a lead. The good news is that a report this month by the IPPR, RSBP, and WWF confirms what Greens have been saying: measures needed to achieve radical cuts in our emissions are cost-effective and are possible without damaging the economy or having to resort to nuclear power.

However failure to act decisively now means that we will face increasingly terrifying choices about who lives, who dies, who eats, who starves, who swims and who sinks.

Cllr. Philip Booth, Stroud District Green Party.

Petition - Heathrow

Greens have been signing this petition - Party Euro-MP Caroline Lucas who has repeatedly spoken out against airport expansions added her voice - she drafted the European Parliament’s preferred option for tackling flights’ growing contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. She said: “This Government’s support for the expansion of airports up and down the country makes a mockery of its claims to be taking serious action on climate change. Aviation is the fastest growing contributor to the greenhouse gas emissions that are fuelling climate change and it is simply incompatible with the UK’s promises to cut overall emissions. Further expansion at Heathrow must be halted as part of a shift in transport and economic policy away from those sectors which are part of the problem rather than the solution. Otherwise we’ll never manage to cut UK emissions by 80 to 90 per cent over the next few decades - necessary if we are to stave off the worst impacts of climate change. Expanding Heathrow is social and environmental madness. We must stop the Government in its tracks if we are to preserve local quality of life and combat climate change.”

The petition is being hosted by the Stop Heathrow Expansion campaign, billed as the ‘biggest ever’ coalition against Heathrow expansion. It boasts MPs, MEPs, local councils, residents’ groups, businesses, the Mayor of London and the Greater London Authority, as well as environmental groups and organisations, among its supporters.

Please sign:
http://www.stopheathrowexpansion.com/