Media round-up July 2022
A round-up of relevant Heathrow media stories from late June and early July 2022. Click on the links below to read the story in full. Please note that some pieces are behind paywalls.
1) Residents worried about noise urge Government to re-think Heathrow night flights plan (ITV News, 4 July 2022)
Anti-noise campaigners living under Heathrow's busy flight path urged the government to think twice about relaxing rules on night flights to avoid summer travel chaos. More flights could be allowed to take off and land between 11.30pm and 6.30am to help airports cope with demand during peak season.
Retired psychotherapist Tim Walker lives beneath Heathrow's flight path in Forest Hill and said Londoners were already "paying with their health".
"I understand that they have an issue and I think they need to find an alternative," Tim told ITV News.
"I don't think that the overflown communities of London should be paying for these additional flights with their health.
"Heathrow flights come over this area in the east and they also curve in over the north east of London and south west too.
"I'm confident millions of people would recognise what we're saying about being woken up," Tim added.
Watch the full clip here: https://www.itv.com/news/london/2022-07-04/fear-locals-will-pay-with-their-health-if-heathrow-night-flights-rules-relaxed
2) Union vows to oppose using night flights to ease travel chaos (Daily Telegraph, 4 July 2022)
Plans to relax rules on night flights to help ease travel chaos over the summer holidays. Airlines are given quotas for the number of flights that can run between the hours of 11.30pm and 6am at major airports such as Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. These limits can lead to flights being cancelled if they are delayed. However, amid mounting concern over travel chaos in the summer, the Department for Transport said it will consider temporarily suspending rules on night flights to mitigate disruption at airports during the peak season.
Paul Beckford, a spokesman for HACAN - the Heathrow Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise - said: "The recent disruption at some airports is entirely of the industry's making, therefore, it would be completely unacceptable for them to be rewarded for their own incompetence.
“Flights during the night period are the most intrusive for local communities and there is clear evidence that they cause significant harm to physical and mental health - to increase this harm should be unconscionable. The Government must stand firm and make clear that it will not permit any relaxation or extension of current night flight limits.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/07/03/union-vows-oppose-using-night-flights-ease-travel-chaos/
3) Heathrow Boss is out of Runway (The Times, 29 June 2022)
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the human hot air balloon, John Holland-Kaye, crashing to earth. Poor old Heathrow boss — finally punctured by the Civil Aviation Authority.
Read Alistair Osborne’s Times column here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/heathrow-boss-is-out-of-runway-9vrrm72zh
4. Heathrow Airport told it must reduce its average passenger charge (My London, 28 June 2022)
Heathrow Airport has been instructed to cut the amount of money it charges passengers after a surge in the demand for flights. The Civil Aviation Authority has announced today that the cap on the West London airport's average charge per passenger will be slashed from £30.19 to £26.31 by 2026.
Commenting on the CAA's new charge cap Paul McGuinness, Chair of the No 3 rd Runway Coalition, said: "Considering Heathrow was seeking permission to increase its passenger charges, the CAA’s instruction to decrease them will come as a blow. Heathrow has already mortgaged every asset to the hilt, to fund £8bn of dividends to shareholders.
“But the claim of Heathrow’s wounded Chief Executive that the CAA’s decision won’t allow the airport to provide "a fair incentive needed for private investors" is misleading. There are no new investors. Just the same bunch of lending institutions to help the airport to pile up yet more debt, provided Heathrow can maintain its credit rating. And that credit rating was why Heathrow, already with the world’s highest passenger charges, was wanting passengers to pay yet more.
“The airport’s prodigal debt model should be a cause for shame. It’s left them barely able to keep the show on the road and consigns any thoughts of expansion to the realm of fantasy”.
https://www.mylondon.news/lifestyle/travel/heathrow-airport-told-must-reduce-24341825
5. Schiphol flights to be limited to 11% below 2019 levels to cut noise, emissions (Reuters, 24 June 2022)
Flights from Amsterdam's Schiphol Airport will be limited to 440,000 a year, 11% less than in 2019, to cut noise pollution, the Dutch government said on Friday, drawing praise from green groups but dismay from airlines bosses.
The decision follows a move by Schiphol itself, in which the Dutch state is the majority shareholder, to impose a cap on the number passengers it can carry this summer - although that was due to staffing shortages.