New Hangers
Feb 12, 2008 17:50:47 GMT 1
Post by Admin (Annette Andria) on Feb 12, 2008 17:50:47 GMT 1
News in Farnborough
£20m hangar plan for airport
by Pete Castle.
The owner of Farnborough Airport has submitted plans to build a new £20m hangar complex.
The 120,000sq ft hangar — the size of two football pitches — will house up to 25 aircraft and will double the current hangar space at the private airport. Detailed plans were submitted to Rushmoor Borough Council last week.
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The news comes as the airport announced it recorded the highest annual figure for the number of flights the airport handled last year.
The total number of aircraft movements — landings and take-offs — in 2007 was 26,507, the airport said — just 1,493 below its 28,000 annual limit, meaning the runways are now operating at 95% of the allowed maximum capacity.
The latest hangar will be an exact replica of the current award-winning three-wave hangar design already at the airport.
An outline plan for the hangar was approved in 2003.
Brandon O’Reilly, chief executive of TAG Farnborough Airport, said the prospect of the 2012 London Olympics had spurred the airport owner into action.
“There is such a substantial demand for materials and labour for the 2012 Olympic Games that prices of steel and other construction-related materials and labour are causing us some concern,” Mr O’Reilly said.
The airport boss added that with the company’s 2003 outline planning permission nearing the end of its five-year time limit TAG could not wait to hear the results of the weekend flights decision.
Ministers at the Department for Transport and the Depart-ment for Communities and Local Government are still considering whether to allow TAG to double the number of weekend flights allowed through Farnborough.
Currently the limit is set at 2,500 a year, which TAG wants to increase to 5,000 of its total annual allowance of 28,000 movements.
“We are making a detailed application now in the hope that in the next few weeks or so we will hear a positive result on the weekend flying appeal,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“The lack of a decision from government either to approve this or not has given us a real difficulty. We can no longer wait anymore because we needed to submit the detailed planning permission because the outline permission ends in October.”
The airport needed the extra hangar capacity to house more private jets, Mr O’Reilly said, with the ability to provide cover for jets up to the size of a Boeing 737 or any aircraft weighing up to 80 tons.
“Hangarage is important to our customers. People who own business jets require that they are kept in hangars so they can be looked after,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“They are important to us because people tend to fly to airports where hangars exist.”
Geoff Marks, the chairman of the Farnborough Airport Residents’ Association, was part of a delegation that visited the airport on Wednesday to hear about latest plans for reducing aircraft noise for residents around the airport.
The visit was part of TAG’s continuing “noise abatement programme” aimed at forcing aircraft taking off and landing to follow stricter flightpaths with the intention to reduce the number of homes affected by aircraft overhead.
Mr Marks told the Mail that airport officials had hinted during the visit last week that a decision on the weekend flights inquiry was imminent.
He added that the timing of TAG’s latest planning application could suggest that the government was about to rule in its favour over the weekend flying argument.
“Why would they put the planning application in now if they did not know what was coming up in the Secretary of State’s decision?” Mr Marks said. “If they did not know what the decision was likely to be they would otherwise only have had to wait a week before they put in the application
£20m hangar plan for airport
by Pete Castle.
The owner of Farnborough Airport has submitted plans to build a new £20m hangar complex.
The 120,000sq ft hangar — the size of two football pitches — will house up to 25 aircraft and will double the current hangar space at the private airport. Detailed plans were submitted to Rushmoor Borough Council last week.
Advertisementyour story continues below
The news comes as the airport announced it recorded the highest annual figure for the number of flights the airport handled last year.
The total number of aircraft movements — landings and take-offs — in 2007 was 26,507, the airport said — just 1,493 below its 28,000 annual limit, meaning the runways are now operating at 95% of the allowed maximum capacity.
The latest hangar will be an exact replica of the current award-winning three-wave hangar design already at the airport.
An outline plan for the hangar was approved in 2003.
Brandon O’Reilly, chief executive of TAG Farnborough Airport, said the prospect of the 2012 London Olympics had spurred the airport owner into action.
“There is such a substantial demand for materials and labour for the 2012 Olympic Games that prices of steel and other construction-related materials and labour are causing us some concern,” Mr O’Reilly said.
The airport boss added that with the company’s 2003 outline planning permission nearing the end of its five-year time limit TAG could not wait to hear the results of the weekend flights decision.
Ministers at the Department for Transport and the Depart-ment for Communities and Local Government are still considering whether to allow TAG to double the number of weekend flights allowed through Farnborough.
Currently the limit is set at 2,500 a year, which TAG wants to increase to 5,000 of its total annual allowance of 28,000 movements.
“We are making a detailed application now in the hope that in the next few weeks or so we will hear a positive result on the weekend flying appeal,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“The lack of a decision from government either to approve this or not has given us a real difficulty. We can no longer wait anymore because we needed to submit the detailed planning permission because the outline permission ends in October.”
The airport needed the extra hangar capacity to house more private jets, Mr O’Reilly said, with the ability to provide cover for jets up to the size of a Boeing 737 or any aircraft weighing up to 80 tons.
“Hangarage is important to our customers. People who own business jets require that they are kept in hangars so they can be looked after,” Mr O’Reilly said.
“They are important to us because people tend to fly to airports where hangars exist.”
Geoff Marks, the chairman of the Farnborough Airport Residents’ Association, was part of a delegation that visited the airport on Wednesday to hear about latest plans for reducing aircraft noise for residents around the airport.
The visit was part of TAG’s continuing “noise abatement programme” aimed at forcing aircraft taking off and landing to follow stricter flightpaths with the intention to reduce the number of homes affected by aircraft overhead.
Mr Marks told the Mail that airport officials had hinted during the visit last week that a decision on the weekend flights inquiry was imminent.
He added that the timing of TAG’s latest planning application could suggest that the government was about to rule in its favour over the weekend flying argument.
“Why would they put the planning application in now if they did not know what was coming up in the Secretary of State’s decision?” Mr Marks said. “If they did not know what the decision was likely to be they would otherwise only have had to wait a week before they put in the application