THIS IS LONGFORD

Now in our sixteenth century!

May/June 2003

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May 2003

June 2003

• BMI stake to be sold by Scandinavian airline, SAS. Analysts think loss-making Scandinavian airline SAS may start selling non-core assets, which include a key stake in short-haul carrier British Midland (BMI), to repair its strained balance sheet.
  Source: Reuters
   

• Air Canada has until midnight Saturday to strike a deal with its pilots that could keep the embattled airline aloft, and even its chief executive officer says "our existence as a corporation sits in the balance."
  Source: Toronto Globe & Mail

• John McDonnell MP has sparked outrage by saying IRA terrorists should be "honoured" for taking part in their "armed struggle". His remarks have been condemned by politicians and the family of one of the IRA's victims.
  Source: Local London Femail The Guardian

• Switzerland's struggling national airline and Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Express both revealed big losses for the first quarter of the year yesterday, providing fresh evidence of the financial crisis gripping the aviation industry.
  Source: The Guardian

• Virgin Atlantic Airways said that "pigs would fly" before it let itself be bought by arch-rival British Airways.
  Source: The Guardian
   

• Passengers face air fare hike to pay for noise compensation. The fact that ministers are pressing ahead with plans for legislation provides a strong indication that the Government will announce a large expansion of airport capacity later this year, following the present consultation process.
  Source: The Independent The Times
   

• HACAN Euro court appeal may be announced in June.
  Source: The Times
   

• For more than three years the Department for Transport has known that its way of calculating aircraft noise at night grossly underestimates the real noise.
  Source: The Times

• Virgin says looked at bidding for British Airways. British long-haul airline Virgin Atlantic looked at the possibility earlier this year of bidding for its much bigger arch-rival British Airways before deciding to pursue talks instead with BMI British Midland, a top executive said on Sunday.
  Source: New Zealand Herald
   

• This week the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Buildings (SPAB) - Britain's senior architectural conservation group - warns that the growing appetite for cheap flights has put more historic houses and churches in danger of blight and the bulldozer than at any time in living memory.
  Source: The Guardian
   

• British Airways' senior management will meet today to consider a possible bid for Virgin Atlantic Airways as part of discussions on how to counter the proposed link-up between Sir Richard Branson's airline and BMI British Midland.
  Source: New York Times The Guardian The Scotsman Ananova
   

• The world's airlines face bleak prospects. The world's airlines have, it seems, suffered 18 months of bad news and financial disaster. What is the real state of the world's carriers?
  Source: The Guardian
   

• BA ‘bargains’ did not exist. British Airways has been criticised for advertising cheap flights that customers were unable to buy. The “deals” were offered through the BA franchisee GB Airways, which ran a nationwide newspaper promotion last November and December promising return fares of £99 from Heathrow and Gatwick to Alicante, Faro and Malaga, bookable through the BA website. But when customers went online, the cheapest available return to Malaga was £149.
  Source: The Times

• British Airways considers bid for Virgin Atlantic. Rod Eddington, the chief executive of British Airways, has called a meeting this week of senior executives to consider a bid for Virgin Atlantic, the airline headed by Richard Branson. Executives at BA say that any deal is likely to be some weeks away, but that the industry is ripe for consolidation and that BA's reduced debt, which now stands at £5bn, puts it in pole position to acquire weaker rivals.
  Source: Sunday Telegraph
   

• Environmentalists are to mount legal campaigns to extend consultation on airport expansion in a move certain to frustrate plans for new runways in the South.
  Source: The Independent
   

• Sir Richard Branson's latest desperate attempt to merge his Virgin airline with bmi British Midland appeared doomed last night after his larger rival insisted that the talks were dead.
  Source: Sunday Times

• British Airways has been accused of foul play over the government's consultation on airport expansion by encouraging its employees to fill in unbranded forms containing "loaded" questions about additional runways. The latest edition of the airline's weekly staff newspaper contains flyers intended to be submitted to the department for transport. The forms, which do not carry BA's name, ask whether employees agree with "developing airport capacity to meet increased demand in a way that maximises economic and social benefits and minimises environmental impacts".
  Source: The Guardian
   

• The aviation industry may be in nosedive, but Kevin Egan, Amicus's airports officer, whose brief includes 25 airlines and handling companies, has his work cut out just to keep up. "Air Canada filed for bankruptcy. KLM is trying to end its occupational pension scheme. Lufthansa is trying to do the same. Members in Portugal are on strike. That's just today."
  Source: The Guardian

• Building a third runway at Heathrow would generate economic benefits worth £37 billion - four times more than the Government has estimated, British Airways said yesterday.
  Source: Daily Telegraph Evening Standard
   

• British Airways has turned up its nose at the prospect of a new international hub at Stansted, urging the government to build runways at Heathrow and Gatwick instead.
  Source: Guardian

• British Airways is to support a proposed new runway at Heathrow Airport. The airline's intervention comes a week after airport operator BAA named the Heathrow option as one of its favourites for coping with a predicted rise in air travel.
  Source: British Airways BBC RTE
   

• The Government cannot meet its targets on climate change without measures to control emissions from aviation according to a report launched this week (Wednesday) by the Institute for Public Policy Research. Building new runways to accommodate more flights would only make things worse.
  Source: IPPR
   

• Letters to The Guardian on Airport Expansion.
  Source: The Guardian
   

• An influential think-tank with close links to Labour today calls for taxes and charges of up to a third on every airline ticket, urging immediate action to tackle the environmental havoc wreaked by passenger jets.
  Source: The Guardian
   

• Government proposals for four extra runways in the South East have been condemned by a left-wing think-tank with close links to new Labour. The Institute for Public Policy Research argues that the runways would destroy the national tourist industry because Britons would make more trips abroad. It wants the rising demand for air travel to be controlled by a new tax on flights to reduce environmentally damaging emissions.
  Source: Times
   

• A letter on the subject of airport expansion from David Wythe of West Drayton appears on Wednesday's Times.
  Source: Times

• British Airways warned of fresh job cuts and promised to speed up other savings yesterday after a new warning on future revenues. Shares in the company fell 6% to 134.5p as chief executive Rod Eddington, who had expected the business to stabilise this year, predicted a further a deterioration in revenues during the first quarter.
  Source: The Guardian Times
   

• If you would like advice on home or business security, or a free security survey, please contact our  local Police Crime Prevention Officers on 020 8246 1770.

• British Airways Cuts Fares as Losses Reach Record. Chief Executive Officer Rod Eddington, 52, is trying to jump start demand for air travel from the worst industry slump ever. Discounts of as much as 60 percent are attracting passengers. They also boosted the fourth-quarter loss at Europe's largest airline to a record as average ticket prices plunged, analysts said. The company releases results today.
  Source: Bloomberg
   

• The new chief executive of BAA assumes that most residents near Heathrow knew the conditions when they chose to live there (After soft soap, plane talking, May 17). Does he have sympathy for the tens of' thousands of people who will live under the flight path of the proposed third runway, or the families living in council homes under the existing flight paths, who have little choice about where they live?
  Source: The Guardian
   

• Freedom to Fly, which represents companies such as BAA and Virgin Airways, says it will drop support for plans for an airport at Cliffe on the Hoo Peninsula. In return it wants green campaigners such as Friends of the Earth to drop their opposition to the expansion of airports such as Heathrow and Gatwick.
  Source: BBC

• BA profits nosedive amid 'perfect storm'. This does not include any effect from the Sars virus outbreak in South-east Asia, which has decimated business travel. Analysts say the Iraq war, the Sars outbreak and the reluctance of North Americans to cross the Atlantic will inevitably mean BA enters the first quarter of its new financial year in the red.
  Source: The Observer
   

• Who says flying is so wonderful? It is far from clear that air travel can carry on expanding at the current annual rate of 4.25 per cent, the figure upon which the case for the new runways is based. If ever there was a bubble waiting to burst, it is the budget airline industry. The surge in passenger numbers over the past decade is thanks only to artificially-low fares which cannot be sustained. Last month easyJet was forced to raise its fares by 6 per cent, having lost £48 million in six months in spite of a 40 per cent increase in passengers. In any case, the public's appetite for air travel is beginning to be tested. When Ryanair tried to give away one million tickets over Easter it had empty seats.
  Source: Sunday Telegraph

• MP John McDonnell launched a stinging attack on airport chiefs this week after they cited a third runway at Heathrow as an option for future expansion. He said: "Twenty months ago BAA wrote to me and my constituents around Heathrow and promised they would not lobby for a third runway. They have broken every commitment and promise and cannot have any credibility left. This is all about them maximising their profit at the expense of the local environment."
   

• Airport may kill itself, says MP. AIRPORT bosses stand accused of a suicide bid over latest Heathrow expansion plans. The warning came from furious MP Fiona MacTaggart as Britain's biggest airport operator pushed for a third runway - in blatant contradiction of BAA's offer to long-suffering residents only four years ago to rule out a new runway if T5 got the go-ahead. Slough's Labour MP claimed more expansion before surface traffic problems were ironed out was suicidal. "The airport is going to kill itself," she said.
  Windsor and Maidenhead Council's new Liberal Democrat rulers will fight a third runway at the airport. Deputy leader Cllr Mary Rose Gliksten said: "It seems to be a pre-emptive strike by BAA. It is bully-boy tactics and it doesn't go down well with long-suffering residents. Our greatest fear is that it would lead to more air traffic overnight. Anyone who lives in Windsor knows the problems. We will be opposing it totally."
  Iver's Cllr Richard Worrall, chairman of the Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group (SASIG), warned the plans would cast a dark shadow over communities near the airports. He said BAA's commitment not to build a third runway at Heathrow was designed to hoodwink locals into thinking T5 was the last of its plans. "Only four years later BAA have changed their tune for purely selfish reasons," he said.
  Source: Reading Chronicle

• Homes hit by runways will get only £2,000!  More than 100,000 families would be entitled to a maximum of £2,000 compensation if their homes are blighted by noise from new runways in the South East under a scheme drawn up by Britain’s biggest airport operator.
  Source: Times
   

• Air Canada grounds planes as 'ruinous' Sars and war hit home.  Further evidence of an aviation industry in difficulties!
  Source: Guardian
   

• News from Canada.  Last year when campaigners were researching the military graves and memorials in the graveyard at St Mary's Church, Harmondsworth, a memorial was found in the memory of Robert Redwood who had died and was buried in High River, Alberta, Canada.  The webmaster sent a request to the Salvation Army seeking any photographs of Robert's grave.  By then, Alberta was already in the grip of winter and a promise was made to locate and photograph the grave for our campaign.  Today we have received two photographs from Captain Terry Cook (pictured above right with his wife, Joanne) of the Salvation Army in High River as well as a poem inspired by his visit to the grave.

  First From The Left, Third Row In First from the left, third row in A lonely marker at row's end Trimmed green grass, singing bird Bees and children; like music heard People come and people go As families tend the long ago To the west the Rockies loom Calling those who liked to roam East proclaims the prairies, bold Where sky is met by fields of gold First from the left, third row in A peaceful marker at row's end.

  In the way of the third runway The memorial of Robert Redwood, killed in a flying accident, High River, Alberta, Canada, 1942.

  In the Canadian Rockies Robert Redwood's gravestone courtesy of the Salvation Army, Canada

• Spelthorne Farm Project for the Handicapped.  Longford residents will be aware of the Spelthorne Farm project at the west end of the village between Longford roundabout and Kings Bridge.  We have recently been informed that they sell bedding plants at very competitive prices.  The farm project is a registered charity providing for the needs of the disabled and the sale of these plants will assist in the running of the project.  So do your garden a favour at the same time as helping our local charity!
   

• Letters to The Guardian on the subject of airport expansion.
  Source: Guardian
   

• Councils to fight third runway. Local authorities throughout south and west London are set to step up their opposition to plans for a third runway at Heathrow after airports operator BAA launched its own campaign to win government backing for expansion on the site.
  Source: Wandsworth Council

• The Day Britain Stopped is a powerful drama examining the devastating chain of fictional events on 19 December, 2003 that leave the country completely paralysed.  This culminates in an air disaster over Hounslow.  The drama is being aired this evening on BBC2 at 9pm.
  Source: BBC TV
   

• In the drama, The Day Britain Stopped, two planes collide over London following a "missed approach" at Heathrow. A far-fetched and unlikely scenario? Not at all, say the programme's producer and director.
  Source: BBC TV
   

• NoTRAG's response to the SERAS consultation has now been produced.  It can be viewed here.
   

• Airports 'need three new runways'
  Source: Telegraph
   

• BAA demands runways to avert sky 'gridlock'
  Source: Guardian
   

• Schools under threat as BAA backs third Heathrow runway.
  Source: The Times
   

• BAA calls for responsible growth of UK aviation.
  Source: eyefortravel.com
   

• Third runway.  You'll have to scroll down the page when you go to The Independent's comments column to read what they have to say about a third runway.  They begin by saying "Those who thought all along that Terminal Five was an excuse for BAA to build another runway at Heathrow will have had their suspicions confirmed yesterday. Not only does BAA now think a third runway at Heathrow is vital (having expressly asked the T5 inspector to rule out just such an option 12 months ago), but it also reckons that this in turn will require the building of a sixth terminal to accommodate all those extra passengers."
  Source: The Independent
   

• Anger greets plan for new runways.
  Source: Evening Standard

• BAA' response to the Government.  More coverage of BAA's call for new runways.
  Source: BBC

• British Airways is urging the Government to shift Heathrow's proposed runway by 200 metres in a move that would save an ancient tithe barn, a 12th century church and a 1,000-year-old graveyard.
  Source: Telegraph The webmaster says - What a coincidence!  Both BAA and BA announcing proposals regarding Heathrow's third runway on the same weekend!
   

• Welcome to Stanwell Moor readers!  Stanwell Moor Residents' Association is now on the web.  They have many of the same problems as Longford has.  Another close neighbour of Heathrow, they are affected by construction work at the T5 construction site, by aircraft noise, and by the constant threat of airport expansion.  Visit their website here.
   

• Flying irresponsibly into the future.  Airport Watch, the UK umbrella body campaigning for an environmentally sustainable air transport policy, expressed no surprise that BAA has today come out in support of 3 new runways for the UK. Andrew Critchell, aviation campaigner for CPRE said: "BAA claims that their new runway options provide responsible growth. We fail to see how building 3 new runways in the UK, subjecting more people to noise and air pollution and our countryside and wildlife to habitat loss and climate change, can be seen as responsible." He continued: "BAA already has a monopoly on the major South East airports and can only gain from more runways and more terminals full of shops. It is therefore no surprise that their idea of responsible growth is in fact major airport
  expansion. Questions need to be asked as to how objective BAA can be." Tim Johnson, Director of the Aviation Environment Federation, said, "The rapid growth in passenger numbers is being artificially stimulated: the industry enjoys considerable tax concessions, typified by the fact that it pays no tax on its fuel, and does not have to meet the full costs of the environmental damage it creates. Recent research shows that, if aviation fuel was taxed at the rate of vehicle fuel, there would be no demand for any new runways in the South East.
  Source: AirportWatch press release dated 12th May 2003
   

• BAA’s views on expanding airport capacity in the south east come as no surprise whatsoever say campaigners at Stop Stansted Expansion who have attacked the airport operator for the hypocrisy it has shown in taking so long to reveal its hand in calling for extra runways in the south east.
  Source: Stop Stansted Expansion
   

• Not only were BAA dishonest about their intentions for a third runway, they then lied about the fact that an isolated third runway (as the Government's SERAS maps would have us believe was going to be the case) is clearly not much use, but would need a sixth terminal to deliver the increase in passenger numbers. BAA accused HACAN ClearSkies of misquoting their Chief Executive, Mike Hodgkinson, when we claimed that at a seminar he had openly stated that the third runway needs a sixth terminal (something so obvious that it hardly needed to be stated, BAA having argued all along that Terminal Five would be fully occupied maximising the capacity on the existing two runways.) Then BAA tried to claim that they didn't know yet, they weren't quite sure, but a third runway might require 'a building with terminal facilities' (which is not the same as a terminal) - while all the time they were drawing up the plans to take more land than shown in the Government's SERAS documents, in order to build a sixth terminal.
  Source: HACAN website
   

• BAA today calls for the phased construction of up to three new runways in the South East of England in the coming 30 years.
  Source: BAA Press Release and BAA Response to SERAS (5.45mb PDF) or BAA Summary Document (52kb PDF) and BAA Heathrow Plans (1.4mb PDF)
   

• BAA denies lying to Terminal Five inquiry.
  Source: Independent
   

• Runway enemies square up.
  Source: BBC

• BAA calls for new runways in southeast.  The announcement, which will form the basis of the company’s response to the government’s aviation white paper, is understood to conclude that a third runway at Heathrow, already the world’s busiest international airport, would provide the greatest boost to the British economy. It will also put the case for building at least one and possibly two runways at Stansted in Essex as well as another alternative — a new runway each at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted — despite a binding agreement made between BAA and West Sussex county council in 1979 not to develop a new runway at Gatwick until 2019.
  Source: Sunday Times

• Kicking off an aggressive campaign in favour of new runways, BAA will argue that fewer than 10,000 west London residents will be exposed to illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide, rather than the Department for Transport's estimate of 35,000 people.
  Source: The Guardian  The webmaster says - So I suppose polluting only 10,000 is alright then!  And since when have we accepted the polluters figures over independent assessment?
   

• North Atlantic traffic at BAA’s seven UK airports fell 5.4 per cent in April compared with April 2002, while traffic to other long-haul destinations was down 7.5 per cent.
  Source: Daily Telegraph Times

• EasyJet, the low-fare airline, yesterday warned there was little visibility from the cockpit window as it dived £48.1m into the red at the half year and said it would cut 50 head-office jobs.
  Source: Daily Telegraph Times

• British Airways yesterday admitted it was having to cut ticket prices heavily to fill its planes as it revealed a sharp fall in front-of-cabin traffic last month, hit by particularly tough trading conditions.
  Source: Daily Telegraph

• Church answers runway prayers.  Bishops join villagers' battle to halt expansion of Heathrow.
  Source: Guardian
   

• For a country famous for its clockwork efficiency, Switzerland has become strangely accident-prone with its airlines. Just 18 months on from the humiliating collapse of Swissair, the new national carrier, Swiss, is in deep trouble.
  Source: Guardian
   

• T5 Notification of Works.  BAA Heathrow have notified the Residents' Association of piling works which commenced on 2nd May which will continue for a period of two weeks.  They advise that residents in Longford may notice additional noise during this period but also inform us that works will only be carried out between 0700-1900 hours Monday to Friday.  If you have any queries or concerns regarding this work, please contact the T5 Community Liaison Team on 020 8745 5555.

• 'Near miss' scare for jumbo jet passengers at Heathrow.  A jumbo jet with more than 300 passengers had a 'near miss' scare when it had to abort landing at Heathrow airport because another aircraft was on the runway, moments before the pilot got ready to touch down. BA insisted that the jumbo was a quarter of mile away and 300 ft above the second aircraft, landing from Toulouse, France, when the incident happened. But sources in the airline claimed it was 'much closer'.
  Source: Zee News (India)

• Switzerland's national airline, Swiss, is to create a "low cost" carrier, Swiss Express, in an attempt to curb mounting losses.
  Source: Guardian The webmaster says - Just what the environment needs, another low cost operation filling the skies!

• Air travel 'to rise by half' according to BAA.
  Source:Gulf Daily News Evening Standard
   

• The British suicide bomber who brought death and destruction to a Tel Aviv bar worked at Heathrow airport for over two years.
  Source: Evening Standard
   

• 619 Bath Road.  According to the Gazette dated 30 April, yet another outline planning application has been submitted for the land at 619 Bath Road.  This time, rather than a hotel, the developer proposes a three-storey office building.  The Residents' Association has yet to inspect that plans and reserves comment until it does.
   

• Fly-tipping on The Square.  The owner of the piece of land behind the wire at the north west side of The Square has visited the webmaster.  He has complained about the apparent fly-tipping of garden rubbish on his land.  As he rightly points out, the fact that the land is isolated and untended is not an excuse for it to be used as a rubbish tip.  He asks that it is publicised that the land is owned and is not to be used for fly-tipping.
   

• Transport for London have today admitted that they are undertaking initial feasibility studies into the impact of a congestion tax around Heathrow.
  Source: HayesMiddx News