Archive

BY KEITH NUTHALL
THE GOAL of creating a European Aviation Safety Agency to police common European Union rules affecting the sector has been achieved, with the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers settling last minute differences.

Resulting final amendments have been approved by MEP’s and the proposal will now return to the Council of Ministers for formal rubber-stamping rather than being haggled over in a time-consuming conciliation committee.…

BY ALAN OSBORN
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to seek authorisation from European Union member governments to negotiate the formal accession of the EU to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Brussels said that in spite of the EU’s economic strength and the independent political power of its institutions, it carried little weight in the adoption of essential international rules in the transport sector.…

BY MARK ROWE
MALAYSIA Airports Holdings (MAH) has launched a US$3.5m international campaign to make Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) a regional hub to rival Singapore. Many major carriers, including British Airways, Qantas and Lufthansa, have stopped flying to Malaysia in recent years but MAH intends to offer tax breaks and fifth freedom rights to allow airlines to pick up passengers while in transit in Malaysia.…

Keith Nuthall
A PETITION opposing plans to expand Madrid’s Baraja airport has been presented to the European Parliament by 12 mayors from Spain’s capital district. They claim that the project’s diversion of the River Jarama would have serious consequences for water management and the environment and an expansion would create more air noise.…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Union Council of Ministers (transport) has approved the latest European Commission airport noise directive, accepting European Parliament technical amendments limiting for 10 years an exemption allowing the noisiest aircraft registered in developing countries to continue operating in Europe.…

Keith Nuthall
INTERNATIONAL airports have been at the centre of a Europol-coordinated series of raids that netted 335,000 ecstasy pills. Airports involved included Amsterdam-Schiphol (89,000 pills), Frankfurt/Main (83,000), Zürich (40,000), Madrid (27,000), Brussels (10,000), Paris Charles de Gaulle (26,500), and Miami (59,000).…

Keith Nuthall
THE EUROPEAN Commission is to seek authorisation from European Union member governments to negotiate the EU’s formal accession to the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO). Brussels said that as a non-member, the EU carried little weight in the adoption of essential international transport rules, being able to participate only if specifically invited.…

Keith Nuthall
AN AIR passenger wearing electrical flashing shoes caused officials to cordon off part of San Francisco airport’s departure terminal, when security staff spotted a battery inside when they were put through an X-ray machine. The traveller had arrived from China to make a domestic connection.…

Keith Nuthall
A POLITICAL dispute between the European Parliament and the European Union Council of Ministers could delay legislation improving security standards at EU airports following the September 11 disaster. MEP’s are insisting that airports and airlines do not foot the whole bill and that costs should be shared with Member States, because damage from airline terrorism is not just felt in the air industry.…

BY SWINEETHA DIAS WICKRAMANAYAKA
ESTABLISHED airport operators, including those of Zurich, Frankfurt, Malaysia, Singapore Changi and Copenhagen, have participated in road-shows in New Delhi and London held to attract interest in Indian government plans to lease the management of its four large metropolitan airports in New Delhi, Madras (Chennai), Bombay (Mumbai) and Calcutta, (Kolkata).…