The Richmond Heathrow Campaign (RHC) acts on behalf of the Kew & Richmond Societies and Friends of Richmond Green in matters relating to Heathrow, and in particular its environmental impact on community health and wellbeing.
Update on Heathrow
Heathrow Expansion:
Last year Heathrow Airport experienced the worst year in its history as a result of the pandemic and, even though air travel is starting to recover, it is unlikely that passenger numbers will reach pre-Coronavirus levels until around 2026. This has resulted in Heathrow pausing its expansion in the short term, but plans for a third runway have not gone away. RHC has long argued that expansion puts in jeopardy the Government’s target for reaching net zero aviation by 2050, and we continue to seek to influence the decision process to avoid expansion.
Last year RHC spent a substantial amount of time ahead of COP 26 in Glasgow researching carbon emissions from aviation and in particular Heathrow flights. RHC believes the industry and government to be over-optimistic on future replacement of fossil fuels with bio-fuels. The only way to achieve net zero in time and avoid a climate crisis is to manage demand, with the cost of carbon emissions reflected fully in ticket prices, to account for the environmental harm. The industry is opposed to demand management, but RHC continues to promote its research and conclusions on aviation’s carbon emissions. 2022 will be an important year because the United Nations will be deciding how to achieve aviation net zero. RHC has submitted a paper to the UN on the subject.
Airspace Modernisation:
Modernisation of UK airspace is a major project planned by government. Heathrow shares its airspace with 14 other airports, and the industry claims there is a need for improved punctuality and increased airspace capacity, but RHC has reviewed evidence which suggests this has been overstated. In February, Heathrow submitted a set of airspace design principles to the CAA which will be used to establish flight path options and a public consultation on proposed flight paths in about two years’ time. RHC initiated a co-ordinated response from over 15 community groups to the proposed principles – rejecting many of them and objecting to the lack of proper engagement by Heathrow. Some changes were made, but a bias towards concentrated rather than dispersed flight paths remains which will result in concentrated noise impact, primarily because of the introduction of Performance-Based Navigation whereby aircraft fly very precise trajectories. Importantly, Heathrow has confirmed the airspace is being designed for a two-runway airport within the existing planning limit of 480,000 flights a year. The issues are therefore about the re-allocation of noise impact rather than an increase in noise emitted through expansion.
Over the next two years, RHC will deploy its knowledge and experience of airspace design to engage with Heathrow and other community groups for a fair allocation of noise impact.
