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Last week, two MPs from Suffolk held talks with a government minister in an attempt to gain support for their aim of changing proposals for a new holding stack for Stansted Airport. The MPs, named as David Ruffley and Tim Yeo, met with Jim Fitzpatrick to air their concerns at the new proposals. Stansted Airport wishes to introduce fairly dramatic changes to their airspace. Approximately twenty-five peaceful villages between the areas of Stowmarket and Hadleigh are now at risk of being changed forever.

Residents in the villages are worried that they will have to listen to a noisy plane every two minutes during the day. The villages are renowned throughout the country for their tranquility and peaceful atmosphere, and these new proposals from Stansted Airport are threatening to bring an end to such a positive reputation. Many people decide to move to the area in an attempt to escape the pressures of city life, but how many people will want to put up with the noise emitted from jet planes?

One thing is for sure: the residents are not taking the news lightly and it is clear that they will not succumb to the proposals without putting up a fight. David Ruffley spoke publicly about his belief that Jim Fitzpatrick should be made aware of the potentially “devastating effect” which the changes to the airspace could bring. He believes that the rural areas affected by the proposal will dramatically feel the impact of the “new holds”. According to Ruffley, since the “level of ambient noise” in the area is lower than in other regions, the “noise overhead will be all the more noticeable”.

The Government has approved an increase in passenger numbers and flights at Stansted airport, much to the disgust of locals and environmentalists. In last week's written statement to Parliament, Geoff Hoon, the Transport Secretary, announced that permission had now been given for an extra 10 million passengers (increased from 25 million to 35 million) and 23,000 flights (up from 241,000 to 264,000) a year.

It is almost two years since the district council refused permission because of fears over noise and environmental concerns. Now a lengthy public enquiry following BAA’s appeal has resulted in the Government overturning the decision.

Stansted’s managing director has spoken of the benefits for passengers and local businesses but environmentalists are furious over the apparent hypocrisy of a government, which has given a commitment to tackling climate change. This came most recently at the Labour party conference when international aviation was mentioned as a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which the party has pledged to reduce by 80% by 2050.

The Department of Transport has said that any impact on health caused by air pollution would be small and that any effects on nearby protected woodland would not be sufficient to justify upholding the appeal.

Uttlesford District Council has six weeks in which to lodge a further appeal. A spokesman has expressed his disappointment at the decision and spoken of the impact on the quality of life for local residents. The Government has meanwhile said that this decision in no way implies their support for a second runway.

On Oct 13th a group of anti-expansion protesters, some dressed as suffragettes to mark the anniversary of their rush on Parliament, tried unsuccessfully to gain entry to the Houses of Parliament.

Ryanair mooted the idea of transatlantic flights for $12 last April, but no more was heard and it was written off by many as just a dream. However, 17 months on and with the aviation industry in crisis, the playing field has changed and last week Michael O’Leary resurrected the idea of low cost flights to New York from Stansted, Prestwick and Birmingham.

Ryanair would set up a totally new company solely to operate these routes. They have been quoted as saying that “the whole European agenda has changed” making it easier for their bid for Aer Lingus, the Irish national carrier, to be approved. If their bid is successful, they would plan to use the 15 new planes ordered by Aer Lingus for their new transatlantic route and are also in talks regarding acquiring some of the new Boeing 787s, now cheaper to lease than before due to the problems in the industry.

The deputy chief executive of the airline has said that many of the smaller European carriers are unlikely to survive and feels that the European Commission should let the “grossly inefficient and polluting airlines” such as Alitalia and Olympic Airways go under, rather than allow governments to help them keep their heads above the water.

At a time when the rising cost of fuel and airlines going bust right left and centre has heralded misery for travellers, the prospect of cheap flights to New York is an interesting one. Many will no doubt hope, however, that Ryanair will ditch their plan to allow mobile phones to be used on flights from this month!

Ryanair has been heavily criticised for taking advantage of the current problems in the aviation industry and making what some have described as “thinly veiled threats” to its 1700 pilots.

With the recent collapses of airlines such as Zoom, Futura and the giant XL, Ryanair may be forgiven for thinking that they have the upper hand but pilots are furious over a memo sent to them recently. The leaked memo said that the airline had imposed a recruitment freeze after having been swamped with applications from pilots who have recently found themselves without a job and from those who are afraid that their current employers are set to go bust, and the memo asks for volunteers to take unpaid leave over the winter.

According to the memo, if insufficient numbers are willing to put themselves forward by the end of the month, then the airline will allocate unpaid leave to some of the pilots based at Stansted and Dublin starting from November. The strike at Boeing has also been blamed by the airline for delays in the delivery of aircraft resulting in fewer pilots being required.

In July, Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, announced that net profits for the first three months of 2008 had dropped by 85% but he was in bullish mood and expressed his confidence that the airline would not only survive the credit crunch but that he would continue to cut fares. Success would come, he said, not only by reducing fares but by cutting winter flights and profiting from the demise of his competitors.

Airlines have found themselves in a bit of trouble in the last few years. With the soaring cost of fuel and the environmental issues, many travellers are looking at other means of transport or just not travelling at all. But one of the leading airlines Ryanair (whose profits have been reported as dropping 85% in the last year) has come up with a new idea for improving business: they could be offering hand-luggage only flights.

In order to save thousands of pounds on baggage handlers and more importantly on fuel, as a plane without any luggage would be a much lighter one, the idea is to allow passengers to bring onboard only what can be put in the over-heads and that’s it. It’s obviously not being proposed for holiday-makers but the idea is for these flights to appeal to the early morning and midweek departures, which have a high number of commuters on board.

Ryanair has found itself in a bit of a spin of late and, due to the above drop in percentage profits, has been forced to pull a few of its routes to cities such as Budapest, Valencia and Palma, which were at one time high-earners for the Irish firm. They are speaking to 147 airports about finding ways to strike up a better deal and they aren’t the only ones in the airline industry looking for new initiatives to turn things around. We’ve had fast-track check ins and the removal of ovens on flights so hand-luggage seems like a good addition to the plan.

The global financial crisis is certainly having an effect on passenger numbers at airports. Figures recently released for the month of June show a decrease for London’s Stansted, Heathrow and Gatwick airports, whilst London City airport has just predicted that, although they will not experience an overall drop this year, they expect growth to slow down.

At Stansted passengers were down by 5.7% to just under 2.1 million. The only growth area is the Irish market which is up by 2.6% with all other routes showing decreases in passenger figures. The recent announcement, however, that Ryanair is to ground 150 of its flights from Dublin this winter will of course have an adverse effect, with a 14% decrease in flights to Stansted expected.

Heathrow’s passenger numbers were down by 0.9% to just less than 6 million. The good news for the airport was, however, that long haul numbers were on the up, with North Atlantic traffic growing by 10.7%. The biggest reduction was in the Irish market which slumped by 15.2%. With the rising costs at Dublin airport forcing Ryanair to cut back this winter, Heathrow may well turn out to benefit from this move.

Gatwick's figures showed a drop of 1.1% to just over 3.3 million. It has, however, seen a rise of 30.5% in its passengers on the Irish routes although its North Atlantic figures are down, possibly because of the move to Heathrow of several operators.

With over two thirds of London City’s passengers being business travellers the airport is predicting a slower rate of increase this year, predicted at around 12% to 15% compared with last year’s 23%. If any reduction in holiday traffic happens it will be towards the end of the year, according to an airport spokesman, with most of the leisure travellers having booked their flights well in advance.

It was recently reported that the number of passengers flying into and out of Stansted airport has fallen yet again. Last month the airport handled 2,019,500 passengers, a 3.3% decrease when compared to May of last year. In the twelve months to May 2008 passengers were down by 1.6%.

Campaigners for the group "Stop Stansted Expansion" were predictably heartened by the news, pointing out that this was the seventh successive month in which numbers had fallen. They have called for BAA to give up on its plans for a second runway, saying that in the last six months, during which time Stansted lost its three routes to America, it has reverted to being an airport for cheap domestic and European flights.

The loss earlier this month of its last service to New York, operated by American Airlines (only seven months after its introduction) was heralded by campaigners as proof that the airport was not succeeding in its long haul aspirations and that the ambition of becoming another Heathrow was not going to be as easy to achieve as had been hoped.

A spokesman for the airport has countered the campaigners' argument, by blaming the downward trend on the global situation, explaining that Heathrow too has suffered a drop in passenger numbers. Stansted personnel are not “unduly worried” according to the spokesman, and are said to be pressing on with plans for the new runway (described by the SSE campaigners as a “white elephant”), which they feel is vital for providing extra flying capacity in the South East.

BAA has launched an extensive information and consultation programme before it continues with expansion at Stansted Airport.

Meetings have been held with community leaders, 27 public planning displays have been erected in the area, and 200,000 local residents have been supplied with the airport's planning newsletter.

BAA are encouraging local residents and businesses to get involved and put forward ideas and opinions, to help them ensure that the airport's expansion causes minimal disruption and damage to the community.

For more information and up-to-date news on Stansted Airport, visit the official news pages.

In 2007, Stansted are submitting an application for the development of a second runway. It will be the first airport in the South East to get a new runway in over 50 years. If everything goes to plan, the second runway is expected to be operational by 2013.

Air travel is growing in popularity, and it is expected that Stansted will be serving 35 million passengers a year by 2015. The purpose of the second runway is to meet this continued growing demand for air travel.