Summary of the Halcrow
Report Part 3 “The Future Capacity of Business Aviation”
Here are the relevant extracts from the Halcrow Report, which was published in final draft in May 2002. It was a supportive document to the SERAS report and focussed on the role of airfields and business aviation ouside of the main passenger airports.
The overall
report on "Business Aviation in
the South East" gives very strong arguements
in favour of protecting the larger airfields in the region from housing and
other such developments, as they could well be required to meet the increased
demand for GA and Business Aviation facilities expected to arise over the next
10 - 20 years. It states that there will be an expected shortfall in
capacity within the next 10 years of several 10's of thousands of movements,
due to real growth and also GA and Business Aviation being squeezed out of the
major airports. It also states that existing Business Aviation
airports such as Farnborough, Biggin Hill, Fairoaks and others will not be able to absorb this
increased capacity alone, and that other airfields (even possibly some
disused airfields) in the region must also participate to a far
greater extent.
Part
3 of the
report relating to "The Future
Capacity for Business Aviation" closely examines all the
airfields in the South East, including some disused airfields, dividing them
into 3 regions: North - from Elstree to South End,
South - Biggin Hill, Rochester and others and West -
incl. Farnborough, Fairoaks White Waltham. In
particular the report singles out North Weald Airfield as being the best suited
to be able to accommodate a significant proportion of the growth, not
only for the North East of London but possibly for the South East as
a whole. Here are the relevant sections:
"The
aerodrome is owned by the local authority, which has policies to promote its
development as a working airfield and a centre of leisure and related acitvity. The setting is essentially rural, with only
two developed areas nearby, North Weald Bassett and the more distant Epping,
neither of which are in line with the main
runway. That runway is one of the longest in the region (outside the
major airports) with a paved length of 1935m.
North
Weald's location and this long, paved runway make it the strongest candidate of
all the North sector aerodromes for development of Business Aviation
capacity. If use of the aerodrome by Business Aviation of all types could
be resolved with its relationship to Stansted and
other air traffic, North Weald would be capable of providing the majority of
the additional capacity needed if Business Aviation demand in the North sector
was to be met beyond 2000."
In the
summary of the examination into the North Sector aerodromes which also include Southend, Elstree, Panshangar and Stapleford among
others, the report continues...
"North
Weald Aerodrome, thanks to its location and long runway, offers the greatest
potential for capacity development in the North sector. With investment
in its navigational aids, and appropriate airspace management methods, this
aerodrome might reasonably be expected, in the medium to long term, to provide
very substantial Business Aviation capacity.....
...in
any case, North Weald's location and other attributes make it likely to attract a high proportion
of investment attention. If demand growth is above the medium range, or if access
to Stansted reduces more rapidly, incentives for the
capacity develpment at North Weald or other North
sector aerodromes will be felt sooner and more forcefully."
In section
8 of the report "Conclusions", the report states:
"..In
the North, if medium-range demand was to be met, additional Business Aviation
capacity would have to be coming into use now....From this point, steadily
increasing demand and falling capacity at Stansted
would indicate the need for investment in one site with the potential to handle
the majority of long-term growth. The most likely candidate in this respect
would be North Weald. With adequate investment, and assuming environmental
acceptability, that site has the potential to meet medium range demand for the foreseeable future."
In the
closing section 8.7 Future Airports Policy it reads:
"In
a heavily contrained scenario, with little capacity
for Business Aviation at the larger airports, dedicate Business Aviation
facilities, optimally located in relation to their market and in respect of the
management of airspace, will be required. The airfields best able to make
a contribution are:
This
assessment of the requirements for GA and Business Aviation capacity in the
South East is integral to the SERAS process. Those packages of airport
development appraised in SERAS which have less capacity at the major airports
will require a greater contribution from the smaller airports if the needs of
thinner commercial routes serving niche markets, GA and Business Aviation are
to be met. The conclusions of this study relating to the provision of
Business Aviation capacity at the identified airports will need to be placed in
the broader context of the favoured packages in later stages of SERAS."