Bournemouth Airport
Airport Consultative Committee Meeting Notes March 2012
It was
announced that many senior personnel changes have taken place. Rob
Goldsmith
the previous General Manager has been seconded to a MAG confidential
project
expected to last several years. His replacement is Paul Knight who is
well
known to the Consultative group as he was the Operations Director.
The
business
development manager has been relocated to Manchester although his
mandate still
includes the route development for Bournemouth. All staff from senior
to junior
have multi-tasking roles and the scheme is working well.
The
General
Manager explained that many regional airports are struggling in tough
economic
times. An expectation exists that Durham Tees and Newquay will not
survive much
longer. The widening of the Air Passenger Duty announced in the recent
Budget
is bad news. Serious lobbying continues to have this tax reduced or
abolished not
only by airport companies, but by Chambers of Commerce as well. The UK
is the
only group of countries that has such a tax. If a passenger has a
return flight
between two UK airports then the tax is paid in both directions as the
point of
departure determines the tax impact.
The £2.50
drop
off charge will continue for another one year when it will be reviewed
again.
This topic was raised at the latest ACRA meeting so I asked if
comparable
charges and levies introduced at other regional airports could be
published. It
will allow a comparison to be made with Bournemouth. My request was
agreed and
the information should be available within two weeks.
The number
of
routes this year has increased and the forecast is that air traffic
will
increase by 5% compared with 2011.
Development
of
the commercial area accessed from Chapel Gate is subject to a public
consultation
that goes live from 2 April 2012 for 12 weeks.
The eco
processing site in Chapel Lane has applied to handle food waste and it
is
opposed by the airport. Safety grounds are quoted as food waste will
attract
large flocks of birds. This subject gave rise to a number of comments
by users
of the airport and the commercial area that the present eco composting
operation creates a significant smell problem. The wind direction
exacerbates
the problem at times. One of the airport managers has direct contact
with the
Environment Agency on this subject and complainants are asked to
channel
comments through him. The Agency can do nothing unless it receives
statements
giving dates, times and other relevant data. Everyone affected agreed
to
co-ordinate complaints.
One of the
Broadstone people continued the theme of night flying noise mainly from
mail
flights. The challenges were phrased differently this time, but he was
rebuffed
as at previous meetings. He used turn distances and altitudes from the
airport
to support his case and it was shown he had his facts wrong. One of the
aircraft used on these operations is scheduled to be replaced in the
foreseeable future. Its successor will be quieter.
One matter
on
which the airport has no control is police helicopter activity. The
surveillance craft is based at Winfrith and most of its work is in the
Bournemouth and Poole conurbation. This craft will be based permanently
at
Bournemouth soon so some disturbance will become standard. The move is
a cost
cutting measure as half of flying time now is getting from Winfrith to
the
scene of action.
Airport Consultative
Committee Meeting Notes April 2011
The
airport has a new management
team with the last member due to start work soon.
All
airports in the MAG group are
now independent business units. Previously Bournemouth was one of three
airports clustered into a sub group where some management and
development work
was handled at another airport. Everything is now controlled on site.
The
new team is working on flight
development to include long haul regulars, more European destinations
and UK business
flights (morning out, evening home) using 20 seat aircraft for centres
such as
Manchester, Leeds and Scotland.
The
new road layout on the B3073 was
considered. Travelling from Parley Cross the lane markings are not as
wanted by
the airport. The inside lane should be to turn left into the airport,
the
middle lane for through traffic with the outer lane for right turns
into Hurn
Court Road. These markings were not implemented by Dorset Highways.
The
committee’s technical
representative compiled valuable statistics over a long period. These
were used
to modify flight paths in order to reduce any disturbance to residents
over the
conurbation. Community
complaints about
flying patterns continue to be dominated by one person, a woman living
in
Northbourne. She
lodged 125 complaints
in the final four months of 2010.
The
land north of the business
park is an SSSI and the airport is looking at ways of opening it to the
community for recreation.
The
business park is now served
by the airport bus service and a major development planning application
is
pending.
Apparently,
the airport created a
substantial recycling facility by agreement with DCC only for the
latter
subsequently to announce that they did not want it (along with the
three waste
plants they were originally intending to get us tax payers to fund).
The
council should be made to compensate for its incompetence.
A
new passenger drop off charge
of £2.50 had been announced the day before the meeting, replacing the
current
10 minute free stay period. The charge starts on 17 April 2011. Partly
it is to
raise funds for on-going development rather than to boost profits and
partly
for environmental and safety reasons. When the cost of flying and the
holiday
or business expenses are considered the airport believes that this new
parking
charge will pale into insignificance.
Drop
offs in the access road
cause pollution with engines left idling and they block the path of
other
vehicles. Manoeuvres by drivers to leave without going through the car
park have
caused a number of incidents. Large signs will be erected on Parley
Lane to
tell drivers of the charge, which will be levied for entry into the
access road
where a new road layout will make it impossible to park, reverse or
turn.
Everyone will have to go through the car park and pay the £2.50 fee.
We
suspect we may see drop-offs
occurring on the B3073.
John
Pendrill
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
At
a presentation given at
our public meeting of 24th February a
representative of the airport gave details of the current situation and
outlined plans for the future.
The redevelopment plan
remains on schedule despite the very difficult financial operating
environment. The airport and associated business plant now account for
an estimated 3,500 direct and contingent local jobs that contribute
£300 million to the local economy.
Many
airlines are moving the
centre of their operations away from airports like Bournemouth to take
advantage of the weaker competition to be found in Europe. The airport
would like to counter this by expanding its business flights to the
major UK business centres and in particular Manchester. It is not
considering any increase in the level of night-time flights.
The Government
aviation tax
is distorting the economics of long haul travel. To fly from the UK to
Sydney, Australia costs around £750 of which £400 is aviation tax. It
is far cheaper to fly from the UK to a European hub, thereby paying tax
on a small fare, and then to fly from the hub (Amsterdam say) to
Australia and avoid a large slice of tax. The airport management are
thus actively looking for a link to such a European hub.
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