London’s airports ready to grow and ‘steal a march’ on Heathrow
Gatwick, Luton and London City airports have all lodged applications to significantly increase passenger capacity, while Heathrow’s expansion hopes have lost momentum. Gatwick recently submitted a planning application to bring its existing emergency runway into “routine use” by the end of the decade. Elsewhere, Stansted announced plans earlier this month for an extended terminal building to increase capacity
Luton and London City airports have expansion plans of their own too; Luton’s hopes of almost doubling capacity from 18 million annual passengers to 32 million took a major step forward earlier this year. London City, meanwhile, wants to increase its annual passenger cap by more than a third.
Birmingham airport deploys overflow marquee to help cope during ‘building site’ operations.
Birmingham airport has set up an overflow marquee to help it cope with the influx of departing customers over the summer holidays. A new £40 million security screening hall is currently being built in the terminal building, and with work set to continue until June 2024. An overspill marquee has been created to give customers a covered walking route, as “large areas of walking route space inside the terminal are now off limits”.
The news comes as Birmingham airport welcomes new, resumed and upgraded services by Middle Eastern carriers, SAUDIA and Qatar Airways, for the first time since Covid.
Dutch government wins appeal to cap flights at Schiphol
Amsterdam Schiphol airport has been granted permission to temporarily cap flight movements, in a move which it says is aimed at addressing noise pollution and environmental concerns.
The cap was first announced by Schiphol – which is majority owned by the Dutch government – in February this year, only for several airlines including KLM, easyJet, TUI and Delta to go to court and successfully challenge the plans. However the court of appeal has overturned the initial ruling, paving the way for Schiphol to cut movements by some 40,000 flights next year. In response flag carrier KLM said that it was “disappointed” and was studying the ruling.
Travel news as a glance:
- Air France to replace Delta on Paris-Raleigh Durham route.
- United opens new Club lounge in Newark’s Terminal A
- Air Canada opens San Francisco Maple Leaf Lounge
- EasyJet cancels 1,700 summer flights from Gatwick.