New legislation intends to stop the Spanish Airports Authority being sued for damages over aircraft noise

Residents who are bothered by noise from aircraft above their homes in Spain ‘will have the obligation to stand the noise’. So says new legislation which had been introduced by the Socialist Party in the Senate known as the Omnibus Law, and which reforms the 1960 Air Navigation Law.

Cardiff Airport is joining Manchester in using facial recognition technology to automate passport checks for inbound passengers.

Anyone over 18 with a biometric passport issued since 2006 can choose to have their face scanned, matched to the picture held on a chip on their passport and, assuming there’s a match, be allowed in.

El Altet was the fifth busiest airport in Spain in October

The El Altet airport in Alicante has broken the national trend and grown to be the fifth busiest airport in the country, overtaking the Canaries. And it’s thanks to Ryanair and a high number of Norwegian tourists that October’s passenger numbers are good.

UK airports operator BAA has reported a large loss after the forced sale of Gatwick airport and also said that passenger numbers have fallen.

BAA announced a pre-tax loss of £784.7m for the first nine months of the year, compared with a £519m loss a year ago.

Passenger numbers were down 2.3% at Heathrow, 7.2% at Gatwick and 12% at Stansted, BAA said.

BAA has agreed to sell Gatwick, the UK’s second busiest airport, to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP) for a fee of £1.51bn.

BAA said the proceeds of the sale would be used mainly to repay part of its existing debt.

Investment fund GIP already owns London City Airport.

BAA was ordered to sell Gatwick after an inquiry found that customers were suffering from a lack of competition between airports.

Manchester Airport will be taking legal advice on proposals to send children through its new X-ray scanners.

This is a change from its position, reported in The Register yesterday, that they did not believe the images created by the new scanning technology (the slightly unfortunately named Rapiscan) would fall foul of child pornography laws, because they use X-rays and therefore “they do not make an image”.

The Spanish Airports Authority is also introducing new green measures

The Spanish Airports Authority, AENA, has announced it is to ban noisy planes from its airports in Barcelona, Málaga, Palma de Mallorca, Gran Canaría, Tenerife Sur, Valencia and Alicante.

New regulations are to be introduced before the end of the year to affect planes which are on the edge of current noise limits. These have been identified as the models B747-200-300, DC8-50/60, B727, Tupolev-154, Ilisin IL-76 and the A300/B2.

An X-ray machine which produces ”naked” images of passengers has been introduced at Manchester Airport, enabling staff to instantly spot any hidden weapons or explosives.

The full body scanner, which is being trialled, will also show up any breast enlargements, false limbs, piercings, and a clear outline of passengers’ private parts.

Some travellers might not want to be scanned because of the graphic nature of the images, bosses admit.

BAA has abandoned plans for a third runway at Heathrow in the face of opposition from the Conservative party, it has been claimed.

The airport operator will not submit a planning application ahead of the general election in June, which the Tories are favourites to win.

It is also thought to be holding back from handing out large contracts, which could force a future Tory government into ploughing ahead with the expansion.

More strike action is possible in September as talks continue with ground staff

Easy jet flights at Málaga landed and took off on time on Saturday despite the strike action called for the day by the CCOO union. The 24 hour stoppage also failed to have any effect on luggage waiting times as 83 workers complied with minimum service agreements.

Workers at Stansted, Manchester and Gatwick airports have voted in favour of industrial action over the Bank Holiday weekend.

The action is likely to cause some disruption to flights because the August Bank Holiday is one of the busiest weekends of the year for airports in the UK.

However, the action will affect only a small number of airlines, and at Stansted no official action will take place until at least Tuesday, if at all.

Passengers at Manchester Aiport face disruption over the August bank holiday after workers voted for industrial action in three separate disputes over pay.

Unite said hundreds of its members, including baggage handlers, cleaners and staff who refuel aircraft, voted overwhelmingly in favour of industrial action.

About 300 Unite members employed by Swissport, Rentokil/Initial and refuelling firm ASIG took part in separate ballots.

A spokesman for Manchester Airport said today that is was confident of replacing the routes abandoned by Ryanair.

He confirmed that the airport is already in talks with other airlines about the possibility of taking over the routes that have been cut by Ryanair.

The Irish airline is to close nine of its 10 routes from Manchester Airport in October, blaming high airport charges for its decision – an accusation that the airport has disputed. Five of the cancelled routes are offered by rival airlines, with Bremen, Cagliari, Marseilles and Shannon no longer offered from Manchester.

Members of both Unite and the GMB unions working for Swissport are balloting over industrial action after accusing the company of reneging on a two-year pay deal.

Should the walk out go ahead it will involve check-in staff and baggage handlers at the airports during one of the busiest holiday weekends of the year.

The results of the ballots are expected within days.

Yet plane passengers pack items worth hundreds of pounds in their suitcases, the survey by Post Office travel insurance found.

The average value of luggage items was £1,133, with women’s items averaging £1,276 and men’s items averaging £988.66.

Of 2,194 adults polled, as many as 23% would be tempted to forgo travel insurance to save on the overall cost of the holiday.

That is the most likely venue to fall out with your loved ones, according to a poll.

Delays, queues and lost baggage meant that family fall-outs were most likely to take place at air terminals, which took 55 per cent of the poll.

A fear of flying was also cited as a stress factor by four out of ten people.

MILLIONS of holidaymakers face the prospect of airport disruption if staff from the government’s new border force carry out a threat to strike.

The two unions representing all 4,100 immigration officials who check passports at the UK’s air and sea ports object to plans to require them to carry out intimate body searches and other duties that have traditionally been the work of customs officers.

Britain’s busiest holiday airport was closed to all flights for more than an hour and a half today after a plane was forced to make an emergency landing.

A Cardiff-bound Dash 8 aircraft, with 46 passengers on board, had to put down at Gatwick Airport, to the south of London.

All the passengers and crew were able to disembark safely from the aircraft, which was flying in from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris.

The airport is confident despite a recent slowdown in activity

The company which has the concession to run Murcia Airport, Aeropuerto de la Región de Murcia S.A. (AEROMUR), is reported to be negotiating a 160 million € loan with a group of banks so that development work can be completed.

80 million € has already been spent at the site, and Cajamurcia and CAM have granted a temporary credit while the main deal is found, and the company is confident that despite a recent slowdown in construction activity, the airport completion date will be maintained.

A £1 drop-fee introduced last week has caused carnage on the approach to the airport.

Luton airport will be raising our frustration levels to new heights this summer with a new traffic-management plan causing confusion and gridlock on the approach road. Passengers arriving for early-morning flights last week were horrified to find traffic tailing back for more than a mile beyond the airport perimeter.