Farnborough Airspace Proposal

[Marchettiman]

I have no doubt that Farnborough's submission to the CAA will be gilded with a thin veneer of balance towards the views of all airspace users as well as those of other interested consultees. But in the end it is a document intended to achieve a commercial aim and advantage for TAG aviation so I don 't think there will be any prizes given for guessing it's final conclusions; let us hope that the CAA and NATCS are able to resist the inevitable wining and dining and glitzy presentations.

I think that there is a fundemental flaw in the traffic forecasts TAG are using to bolster their case which I hope our GA representatives (AOPA, BGA etc) will not leave unnoticed.

In the original planning permission for use and development of the airfield granted in 2000 there were specific conditions which relate to the number and more importantly TYPE of aircraft movements. For instance the permission relates specifically to Business Air Transport Movements (BATM) and excludes bulk freight, scheduled passenger services, most training flights and recreational flying.

A later permission granted at appeal to increase the number of annual movements to the current planned levels relied heavily on the support of the government's Air Transport White Paper 2003 which specifically encourages the growth of Business Aviation.
I know from personal experience as a passenger in chartered jets out of Farnborough that a significant number of current movements have nothing to do with business they are purely personal transportation using a class of aircraft commonly referred to as a business jet. It is the obverse of my practice of using my private aircraft for a business trip.

Whether or not the local authority have picked up on what I see as a clear breach of the planning permission relating to use of the aerodrome I know not, but I do think it is a strong argument in questioning the data which is being used to support the proposed airspace restrictions around a wide part of the SW of London.

Maybe with this proposal Farnborough have opened a can of worms they would have preferred to have kept firmly closed.