HOME | IMC UK | Editorial Guidelines | Mission Statement | About Us | Contact | Help | Support Us

SouthCoast Indymedia

More pain in the aviation industry

flyer tuck | 26.02.2009 08:47 | Analysis | Climate Chaos | Energy Crisis | South Coast | World

Anti aviation campaigners may find they are increasingly pushing at an open door over the coming year and more as the recession bites hard into passenger numbers and aviation industry profits. The fall against of the pound against the euro and the dollar have made increasing numbers stay at home where the pound in their pocket still feels like it is worth something. Even with fuel prices under half what they were last summer and ticket prices cut to encourage custom, there are simply far less people seeing a quick overseas break as a viable option right now.

Airport operator BAA posted an 18% drop in profits yesterday, a reported a drop in adjusted profits at the operating level down to £582 million from £713m.

Passenger numbers released with the profits figures also suffered a hit, with the number of passengers passing through the firm's seven airports falling 2.8 per cent overall. Edinburgh has been the most resilient with just a 0.5 per cent. Glasgow was one of the worst performing, falling 6.8 per cent, hit by last year's collapse of low budget airlines Zoom and XL Leisure. Gatwick was similarly affected by the failure of the carriers such as Sterling airlines which went bankrupt last year. In total 30 airlines went bankrupt during 2008. Ryanair was not immune either, it cut flight and destinations and has now culled staff and eliminated its check-in desks at Stansted.

BAA chief executive Colin Matthews warned of another "challenging" year ahead. He said: "BAA performed strongly in 2008, although its performance was affected by a drop in passengers, which reflects the general economic situation." It also said airport charges per passenger were likely to be about 10 per cent higher at its London airports under price increases to reflect investment.

While brits may be cutting back on flying, the week pound makes the UK an attractive place to shop for anyone still with money to spend from elsewhere in the world so things aren't all bad for the industry but long term it depends on how deep and wide this recession will be. If its just a short glitch as those in power would like us to think, then the airline industry might see some recovery until energy prices knock it out of the sky for good but this recession is likely to drag on for much longer only to merge into the big depression of peak everything.

All in all it seems a strange time for the government to be betting the bank on airport expansion and it seems perhaps BAA is starting to come to it's senses too. It announced last week that the proposed second runway at Stansted wouldn't be operational until 2017 because of falling demand. BAA has previously said it would not sell Stansted, but reports at the weekend suggested it might now be prepared to put it on the market.

Today BAA were trying to use the industries poor economic performance to influence demands from the Competition Commission which is looking at breaking BAAs monopoly hold on UK airports. BAA say that this is would be a really bad time to be forced to sell airports such as Edinburgh, Gatwick and Stanstead.

A spokesman for the Competition Commission refused to comment on the issue until their report is published in two months time, but it is understood that the body will take timing considerations into account, although is unlikely to postpone forcing a sale indefinitely. Besides, it looks like BAA parent company Ferrovial needs the cash - anyone want to buy an airport?


flyer tuck

Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. Addition - falling passengers — aaaaaaaaahhhhh
  2. The Problem of Riches — Keep Em On The Ground!
  3. hmmm — tony
  4. Travel industry is having a lot of redundancies at the moment — anonymous travel worker

Publish

Publish your news

Do you need help with publishing?

-->

Kollektives

Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World

Other UK IMCs
Bristol/South West
London
Northern Indymedia
Scotland

South Coast [navigation.actions2016]

South Coast [navigation.actions2015]

South Coast [navigation.actions2014]

NATO 2014

South Coast Actions 2013

G8 2013

South Coast Actions 2012

Workfare

South Coast Actions 2011

2011 Census Resistance
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Occupy Everywhere

South Coast Actions 2010

Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands

South Coast Actions 2009

COP15 Climate Summit 2009
G20 London Summit
Guantánamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
University Occupations for Gaza

South Coast Actions 2008

2008 Days Of Action For Autonomous Spaces
Campaign against Carmel-Agrexco
Climate Camp 2008
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Smash EDO
Stop Sequani Animal Testing
Stop the BNP's Red White and Blue festival

South Coast Actions 2007

Climate Camp 2007
DSEi 2007
G8 Germany 2007
Mayday 2007
No Border Camp 2007

South Coast Actions 2006

April 2006 No Borders Days of Action
Art and Activism Caravan 2006
Climate Camp 2006
Faslane
French CPE uprising 2006
G8 Russia 2006
Lebanon War 2006
March 18 Anti War Protest
Mayday 2006
Oaxaca Uprising
Refugee Week 2006
Rossport Solidarity
SOCPA
Transnational Day of Action Against Migration Controls
WSF 2006

South Coast Actions 2005

DSEi 2005
G8 2005
WTO Hong Kong 2005

South Coast Actions 2004

European Social Forum
FBI Server Seizure
May Day 2004
Venezuela

South Coast Actions 2003

Bush 2003
DSEi 2003
Evian G8
May Day 2003
No War F15
Saloniki Prisoner Support
Thessaloniki EU
WSIS 2003

IMCs


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech