Topic: | Re:Re:Northolt as Heathrow satellite | |
Posted by: | Tim Henderson | |
Date/Time: | 27/01/12 18:20:00 |
Thanks for that - I was surprised that slots that are needed to fly businessmen to Guangzhou are occupied by pure freight cargo planes. I wonder how many there are. DHL told the Commons Transport Committee in 2008 that there were two planes used for daily departures : " 3.2 Aside from the 250-300 destinations serviced daily through the use of commercial airlines DHL also operates two daily, late evening departures, dedicated freighter aircraft from Heathrow; albeit due to curfew restrictions (pre 6.00 am) these return via Luton airport, only positioning back to Heathrow in the early evening. DHL foresees the predominant position of Heathrow airport in the air freight market as unlikely to change and in fact would support any initiative which helps maintain this very important economic asset. For DHL's overnight European services our main air hub is based at East Midlands Airport where we operate around 21 dedicated freighter aircraft on a nightly basis, moving thousands of kilos per day. 3.3 For the long haul market, DHL requires strategic airports such as Heathrow Airport to have the ability to grow to meet the needs of the commercial airlines and thereby increasing belly hold capacity for freight. For intra-European business, and increasingly for some of the long haul services, DHL needs access to a limited number of regional airports: one in the South ie LHR, one in the Midlands ie EMA and one in Scotland ie EDI. However, to serve our customers' needs these must be operational 24/7 hours. We would propose that the Government consider the benefit that some of the additional slots generated by the proposed application for the third runway at Heathrow, if granted, be reserved for cargo aircraft operations as and when required. Interestingly, analysis undertaken in the OEF study on the Economic Impact of Express Carriers suggests that "the catalytic economic benefit for a flight by an express delivery operator is around £58,000. This is almost three times greater than for the typical UK passenger flight"." |