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A consultant employed by Belfast City Airport has strongly hinted at the airport’s real gameplan – to become Northern Ireland’s second international airport.
Writing in the ‘Belfast Telegraph’, Gordon Bevan, from Manchester-based consultants, ASM, opened up the vista of round-the-clock operations on long-haul and freight services.
For the sake of clarity, this is what the airport’s ‘hired gun’ had to say:
“At present, Belfast International has a monopoly on long-haul charter operations, air-freight operations, long-haul scheduled operations and medium-haul charter services. Competition only takes place on domestic and near-Europe sectors.
“Preventing Belfast City’s proposed runway extension is merely going to restrict choice and competition. That’s good news for those who dominate current services, but not for consumers”.
There it is – the cat is definitely out of the bag!
This is why this planning application was lodged to extend the runway.
And this is precisely why it needs to be vehemently opposed!
So the truth appears to be that Belfast City Airport wants the runway extended to international length to compete head-to-head with Belfast International for long haul and air-freight operations.
That means: - Removal of the curfew for 24/7 operations necessary to operate long haul and air freight services
- Bigger, noisier aircraft
- Air-freight would mean even heavier, therefore noisier planes
- Yet more increases in the 2008 Planning Agreement for passenger numbers and the number of flights allowed per year
Campaigner Fiona McKinley said the contribution from Mr Bevan was presumably endorsed by airport management before it went off to the ‘Belfast Telegraph’.
She added: “If you were a forensic scientist, you’d see the fingerprints of the City Airport all over this pretty feeble yet very revealing article.
“You wouldn’t require the team from NCIS, or Inspector Poirot, for that matter, to figure out that the airport is clutching at straws.
Belfast City Airport has lost the argument about growing the market and increasing tourism.
Flights to Malaga by Ryanair – the airline which is cutting check-in jobs and possibly baggage handling jobs as well – are highly unlikely to create more jobs or to bring in tourists.
Despite what Mr Bevan says, consumers already have plenty of choice – Belfast International and Derry Airport both have international length runways and can provide Northern Ireland passengers with a choice of destinations and tourists with two gateways to Northern Ireland.
The limited population/passenger base in NI cannot support three international airports.
So does anyone in Northern Ireland really need another international airport? No is the obvious answer, given that this ‘city airport’ is sited in such a heavily populated area. With all of the well-documented environmental and health impacts and public safety concerns that are associated with airports, planners normally insist that they are sited well away from areas of high population.
Any arguments which the City Airport have been putting forward for extending the runway have now been exposed as spurious.
All ‘spin’ without substance or foundation.
All designed to impress the politicians who, thankfully, aren’t that easily taken in.
The one good thing about Mr Bevan’s piece of inspired prose is that it tears away the camouflage that surrounds the airport’s real intentions.
They want to get bigger and busier, they want to get into long-haul and air-freight, they want to get to over 4 million passengers a year and that means shredding the Planning Agreement; long-haul and freight means even later flights; permitting noisier and larger aircraft.
We already know that the runway extension would mean 6,000 more flights a year (that’s about 115 more a-week)
This is end to the City Airport as we know it and the start of an irreversible nightmare – the complete blight of schools, parks and thousands of people’s homes and lives in East and South Belfast and North Down.
Belfast City Airport Watch campaigner Fiona McKinley said “It is quite clear now that it intends to expand into a major international airport, even though it is sitting in east Belfast, and nearly 50% of its flights now take off and land over densely populated areas in the east and south of this city.
“Belfast City Airport’s impact on people’s homes was recognised by the European Parliament back in 2002. It is listed in European Directive 2002/30/EC as one of three city airports in the EU where… (15) The particular noise problems of airports which are located in the centre of large conurbations ("city airports") should be recognised by allowing for the introduction of more stringent rules.
“Despite this ruling, Belfast City Airport CEO, Mr Brian Ambrose claims that this EU Designated City Airport is “just like any other airport” and needs the runway extended to compete head-to-head with the International Airport – which is, as is the case for most other airports – surrounded by fields – and not city streets, schools, homes, a public park and RSPB Bird Reserve, both part of an internationally important Area of Special Scientific Interest, and several large industrial fuel storage depots.
“Mr Bevan has done us all a big favour. Now residents, politicians, Belfast City Council, Planning Service and the Environment Minister know the real reasons for the runway extension. We await more spin from Mr Ambrose as he grapples with trying to put this very big cat back into the bag”.
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