Airport Expansion

Heathrow's Terminal 5 gets flashmobbed

Posted by bex — 27 March 2008 at 12:03pm - Comments

Flashmob at Heathrow

Flashmob at Heathrow's Terminal 5 this morning

This morning saw the opening of Heathrow's new Terminal 5 to the public. Unfortunately for the aviation industry and government - who wanted this to be a chance to promote their case for airport expansion - a large section of that public is vehemently opposed to unsustainable aviation growth, and not afraid to show it.

So at exactly 11am this morning, hundreds of people stripped down to reveal identical "Stop Airport Expansion T-shirts", and to highlight the problems caused by airport expansion and unsustainable aviation growth. Pictures of the flashmob are coming in to our Moblog thick and fast. Scroll to the bottom of the page to see video footage of the event.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, flash mobs, heathrow, videos

Are BAA's plans in terminal decline?

Posted by bex — 14 March 2008 at 5:30pm - Comments

Goddard cartoon

Image reproduced with kind permission of Private Eye Magazine and Clive Goddard.

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).

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, consultations, heathrow

Brass neck or corporate suicide? BAA goes for Stansted expansion

Posted by bex — 11 March 2008 at 5:04pm - Comments

You'd think being slammed for bad science, government collusion and involvement in reverse engineering a consultation in the space of a fortnight would be enough to give a company pause for thought.

Not BAA, who have just submitted an application to build a second runway at Stansted. The runway would add the equivalent of 11 million tonnes of CO2 to the UK's annual carbon footprint, bulldoze a thousand acres of countryside and make Stansted bigger than Heathrow is today.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, stansted

Government "wobbling" over Heathrow

Posted by bex — 28 February 2008 at 6:35pm - Comments

Heathrow voices tour

Out and about on our Heathrow Voices tour last year.

If you're one of the many, many thousands of people involved in the opposition to Heathrow expansion, you may want to give yourself a pat on the back. The day after the 'consultation' closed, there's news that we're getting the message through to 'the highest levels of Labour'.

In one of two Heathrow stories in today's Evening Standard, the paper's chief political correspondent wrote:

Ministers are under increasing pressure to rethink plans for Heathrow expansion after 18,000 people lodged objections to the plans.

The scale of the protest is understood to have taken the government by surprise and is causing concern at the highest levels of Labour at the political fall-out if plans for a third runway are given the go-ahead.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, heathrow, public consultations

Government's economic case for third runway at Heathrow is "flawed and misleading"

Posted by jossc — 14 February 2008 at 1:34pm - Comments

A new report published today undermines the economic case for building a third runway at Heathrow Airport. It shows that the Department for Transport (DfT) based part of its case for expansion on an Oxford Economic Forecasting (OEF) study commissioned by BAA, the company who own and manage Heathrow.

BA airliner landing at Heathrow Unsurprisingly, the BAA funded study over- estimates the benefits of a third runway, assuming it would generate an extra 3 million business passengers contributing £400 each to the UK economy (making it worth £5billion over 70 years) - the DfT's original estimate was for half a million new business passengers spending around £120 each.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, co2 emissions, HACAN, heathrow

London mayoral candidates unite against Heathrow expansion

Posted by jossc — 16 January 2008 at 4:44pm - Comments

All four London mayoral candidates are unoted against Heathrow expansion

All four leading candidates for the forthcoming London mayoral election have joined forces to fight Gordon Brown's push for a third runway at Heathrow Airport. Ken Livingstone, Boris Johnson, Brian Paddick and Sian Berry have all agreed to feature in a new anti-expansion advertising campaign launched today. The ad features in the Times, Guardian, Independent and Evening Standard newspapers.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, boris johnson, climate change, co2 emissions, heathrow, ken livingstone

Heathrow expansion: advice on consultation submissions

Posted by jossc — 2 January 2008 at 12:53pm - Comments

The Heathrow expansion consultation is a complete sham and a blatant stitch up from start to finish - it excludes any consideration of the most important issue - climate change - and is essentially a cosmetic exercise to allow the government to implement a decision they have already made with a pretence of having consulted with stakeholders. There are other ways of trying to influence this issue which we feel are far more likely to be effective, and you can find them by visiting our Stop Heathrow Expansion homepage.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, co2 emissions, heathrow

A nice bit of schadenfreude in the morning

Posted by bex — 14 December 2007 at 2:47pm - Comments

For environmentalists partial to a mild bit of schadenfreude over their tea and toast, this morning's Today Programme was a treat. You can listen to it here, if you're quick (Fiona and farnishk, I think you'll like John Humphreys' stance).

Environment minister Hilary Benn was invited on to talk about how things have been going in Bali (not so well). As Benn waxed lyrical about the urgent need for action to reduce emissions, Humphreys pulled him up on the yawning gap between the government's rhetoric and reality, what with the government wanting to build new runways and all. Then he pulled him up again. And again. And again. And again. It was a little like listening to a kitten being mauled by a teddy bear.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, heathrow, rhetoric versus reality

Alternative Heathrow consultation gathers pace

Posted by Louise Edge — 26 November 2007 at 1:00am - Comments

Local MP Emily Thornberry lends her support as the airstream tour arrived in Islington

Local MP Emily Thornberry lent her support as the airstream tour arrived in Islington

Today the intrepid airstream crew were in Islington talking to the locals about plans to expand Heathrow airport and increase flights over London by some 70%. The tour is part of our 'alternative' Heathrow expansion consultation.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, climate change, heathrow, heathrow voices

Heathrow expansion: consultation or collusion?

Posted by jossc — 22 November 2007 at 12:36pm - Comments

Queing up for take-off at Heathrow, Europ's busiest airport

Today the government begins its long-awaited consultation process into the need for a third runway at London's Heathrow Airport. Strangely enough, given Gordon Brown's recent public declarations that tackling climate change is right at the top of his agenda, it's already looking as though Heathrow expansion will be given the go-ahead. But then documents we've been given by Justine Greening MP show just how closely the government has been working with BAA on preparing the consultation.

This move towards a third runway is despite the fact that it will mean a 70 per cent increase in flight numbers and the resulting rise in climate change pollution will be equivalent to the entire annual emissions of Kenya. Worse still, the bulk of the additional 500 flights a day from Europe's busiest airport will be short-haul hops to cities like Paris, Brussels, Edinburgh and Newcastle - all easily reached by rail.

Article tagged as: airport expansion, aviation, BAA, climate change, co2 emissions, heathrow

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