Luckily for BAA, the Queen doesn't seem to have taken offence at apparently being banned from Heathrow in the run up to climate camp last year. This morning, she tootled off to Hounslow to officially open Heathrow's new Terminal 5 (although the public opening won't happen 'til the 27th).
Beleaguered BAA must have been hoping for a good news day. The company's been under fire of late from local residents, Mayoral candidates and a whole raft of campaigning groups, as well as their own customers, for everything from bad science and collusion with government to shoddy planning and delays.
Last weekend, it turned out that even the government's own environment advisors think a third runway at Heathrow could potentially increase "morbidity and mortality over a dense local population", and that there were "substantive uncertainties" over whether an expanded Heathrow could meet EU pollution limits.
The Sunday Times also reported that BAA executives "prevented the use of data in the consultation document which showed that the expansion would cause unlawful levels of pollution and extra noise. Instead, they gave civil servants amended data that showed the anticipated 230,000 extra flights a year at Heathrow would have a minimal impact on noise and pollution levels."
The revelations about the depths of BAA/government collusion in writing the Heathrow consultation show an incredible arrogance from both parties. Both seem to assume that what's good for BAA is good for UK plc (against the evidence, as it turns out) - never mind Britain's emissions reduction targets, climate change, the political process or public opinion.
But the opening of T5 hasn't given BAA the good news day it was hoping for, with a fair chunk of the media choosing to grill the company on climate change.
After the aviation industry was rapped on the knuckles by the Advertising Standards Authority for claiming that the third runway will reduce "aircraft emissions by 330,000 tonnes a year", BAA had to resort to telling the Today programme that Terminal 5 has "been built in a very very environmentally friendly way". (Phew - let's just not mention the fact that Runway 3 will generate extra emissions equal to those of Kenya...)
With BAA on the defensive and the government wobbling over the decision, it's starting to look like we really can win this battle for the climate. And there are plenty of exciting plans afoot to help us get there. For now, just put May 31st in your diaries - details coming soon.