Monday night (21/7/2008) - BBC1 Panorama will be about Heathrow
expansion.

The programme will unearth new evidence about the way in which BAA and
the Department for Transport colluded over the air pollution
figures.

Some of this is trailed into today’s Sunday Times.

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BAA invented ‘green’ jumbo to help win Heathrow case.

Jon Ungoed-Thomas and Marie Woolf

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/environment/article4364216.ece

BAA, the operator of Heathrow, used the low emissions figures of a non-
existent green jumbo to help clinch the environmental case for a third
runway.

The twin-engine 450-seat “virtual” jet was invented for the
environmental modelling required in the government consultation after
BAA realised it would otherwise exceed the limit for noise and
pollution.

According to BAA submissions, the green jumbo will account for more
flights out of Heathrow by 2030 than four-engined giants such as the
double-decker A380, or the new generation of Boeing 747s. It promises
to be the world’s quietest and cleanest jumbo.

There is just one snag: Airbus and Boeing, the world’s biggest
aircraft makers, have no intention of building it.

“Nothing like this is on the drawing board,” said one senior industry
source. “I don’t think it’s feasible because the size of engines that
would be required for this plane to safely take off don’t exist and
aren’t under development.”

New evidence of the flawed consultation, to be shown on BBC’s Panorama
tomorrow, will increase pressure on the government to review its plans
for Heathrow’s expansion. Ministers have already delayed the decision
after a backlash against proposals to permit an extra 220,000 flights
a year.

The government has been accused of acting “like a subsidiary of BAA”
over its plans for Heathrow. John Hutton, the business secretary,
signalled last week that Heathrow growth was likely to be approved
when he pledged the government was ready to take “difficult decisions
on airport expansion”.

The Sunday Times revealed in March how BAA collaborated with the
Department for Transport (DfT) on the official consultation and
repeatedly altered the data to get the required result. It has now
emerged that one of the big concerns was that four-engine jets would
cause a disproportionate amount of noise and pollution if a third
runway was built.

BAA initially predicted that 20% of planes taking off from Heathrow by
2030 would be four-engine jets. It subsequently cut that to 11% and
then to 6%.

BAA’s “virtual” plane was quietly inserted into the evidence to reduce
the number of long-haul four-engine aircraft. The research was used by
Ruth Kelly, the transport secretary, to demonstrate how Heathrow could
be expanded without causing more noise or pollution.

Documents obtained by The Sunday Times under freedom of information
laws show DfT officials were sceptical. Last September, days before
the results were to be signed off by ministers, e-mails show officials
were alarmed that BAA’s predictions for a cleaner, quieter fleet might
be too optimistic and would be challenged.

BAA responded that it could use “rules of thumb” for a quick fresh
forecast, but there was not enough time to produce robust research for
publication.

It appears officials were left with no option but to use the airport
operator’s data and the green superjumbo.

BAA said last week its new jet was a realistic prediction. It said if
such a plane was not built the number of flights using Heathrow could
be reduced to ensure environmental limits were not breached.

Opponents of expansion say it is another example of how the
consultation was fixed. “This is an invented plane that experts say
won’t be built,” said Justine Greening, the Conservative MP who has
campaigned against the airport’s expansion. “There is a point at which
a biased process became a bogus process.”

The DfT said the green jumbo was intended only as an “illustrative
example”.

BBC’s Panorama investigation, Friends in High Places, is broadcast
tomorrow at 8.30pm

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