The Government has outlined new proposals designed to encourage airports to focus more on the needs of the passengers who travel through them.

The airport legislation included in the coalition’s draft Civil Aviation Bill aims to support passengers with the help of a new single primary duty, which will promote their specific interests.

The draft proposals also call for certain roles fulfilled by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to be amended or expanded.

For instance, under the terms of the Bill, the CAA would be required to encourage investment in airports in order to improve their facilities.

The draft Bill would also require the authority to set performance measures at key airports in a more flexible manner.

While responsibilities for aviation security policies would stay with the Government’s transport secretary, the CAA would be given the power to fine airports 10% of their annual turnover if they were found to have breached their licence conditions.

The formal version of the Bill could now be introduced in Parliament in the early stages of 2012. Originally, ministers had planned to wait until the next Parliamentary session to introduce it.

Among the other reforms which the Bill proposes, the CAA would become responsible for certain security functions, including monitoring and enforcement.

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Business jet flights are growing in popularity in the UK, statistics have revealed.

There was a 7% rise in January to June 2011, equating to an average of 393.5 business aircraft flights a day, business aircraft company Hawker Beechcraft (HBC) said.

Of the total in Europe, UK flights accounted for 22.18% of traffic from the 27 member countries. The average rise in flights in the first half of this year was only 4.7%.

There are now more than 700 business aircraft based around the UK in places such as Stansted and Gatwick. Only Germany has more.

HBC’s Europe, Middle East and Africa president Sean McGeough said: “Our analysis shows that the business aviation market continues to recover, despite the current uncertain economic climate.

“One of the reasons for this is that businesses are increasingly realising the many business benefits of having their own aircraft. We have a growing number of clients who use our aircraft to personally visit key clients all over Europe.”

Only Poland had a biggest increase in the number of daily business flights, rising 15.5%, of the countries reviewed. The largest number of daily business flights of on average 698.3 during the first six months of this year went to France, while Germany had the second highest number.

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Heathrow has experienced its busiest ever September in terms of passengers, it has been announced.

Numbers at the airport were up 1.4% compared with the same month in 2010.

Overall, BAA’s six UK airports dealt with a higher number of passenger last month, although the news has been met with some caution by chief executive Colin Matthews.

Some 10.8 million passengers were handled by the six airports, and despite a 4% dip in numbers at Stansted, this worked out to a 1% rise on last September.

Mr Matthews said: “Passenger numbers rose in September, with stronger growth across the group than in July and August.

“Slightly softer Heathrow traffic in the latter part of September, vigilance in the near term from individual carriers and problems facing the European economy make us cautious about predicting traffic growth trends in the coming months.

“However, Heathrow is expected to demonstrate its previous resilience if a more challenging economic environment emerges.

“It is also important to distinguish between the recent growth in passenger numbers and the longer term picture for the UK.

“While existing routes are performing well, capacity constraints mean the UK is lagging behind in its connections to emerging market destinations – for example, Paris and Frankfurt already boast 1,000 more annual flights to China’s three largest cities than Heathrow.

“The UK is not just missing out on flight connections, but the economic growth these links bring.”

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Boeing’s new “green” plane has moved a step closer to UK airports after the first 787 Dreamliner was delivered to Japan.

Production of the fuel-efficient plane has been delayed by three years, but it has now been delivered to a Japanese airport ahead of its first passenger flight next month. 

The Dreamliner joined the fleet of Japanese airline ANA after being dispatched from Boeing’s Seattle headquarters in the US. It will set off on its first commercial flight from Tokyo to Hong Kong at the end of October. 

The Dreamliner has been designed to consume less fuel than previous Boeing models, and it even features an on-board atmosphere designed to reduce jetlag for long-haul passengers. 

Several UK airlines have ordered the new hi-tech planes, which could be available for passenger flights from major airports such as Luton and Stansted in a few years’ time. 

The first UK airline to offer Dreamliner flights will be Thomson Holidays, which will receive the first of its 11 Dreamliners next year.

British Airways is set to take delivery of 24 Dreamliners from 2013, while Virgin Atlantic has ordered 15 of the planes to arrive in spring 2014.

BA, which has ordered six new Boeing 777-300s during the wait for the Dreamliner, sees the plane as a replacement for its Boeing 767s.

Boeing claims the Dreamliner is “more fuel-efficient and provides lower operating costs”.

It said: “Passengers will appreciate the cleaner cabin air, higher humidity and lower cabin altitude that combine to help them feel more refreshed after flying on the 787.”

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Many air passengers are unaware of the rules against carrying liquids in hand luggage, a survey suggests.

Research indicates that travellers throw out liquid products worth a total of £143 million a year at airports.

More than half (51%) of those who have travelled on a plane in the last 12 months said they had discarded bottles of liquid at airport security before boarding their flight.

Travel company sunshine, which carried out the poll, said passengers threw away an average of £6.50 worth of items each.

The discarded products included drinks, sun cream, perfume and hair products.

The findings suggest that packing should be planned in advance, alongside other preparations such as booking airport transfers, to save time and money at the airport.

But despite the cost and an apparent lack of knowledge about security restrictions on hand luggage, the poll found that there is a great deal of support for the measures.

Some 81% of respondents said they were glad the rules were in place.

Chris Brown, co-founder of Sunshine, said: “I was surprised to find that so many people had to get rid of liquid-based items before getting on flights in the past year.

“The new restrictions mean you really need to be careful when packing. Don’t put any toiletries over 100ml in your hand luggage, because it’ll just have to be binned before you go through security.”

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Airbus has estimated that the coming two decades will see the passenger plane fleets of world airlines more than double.

The firm made the call during a London briefing, saying that the number of planes with more than 100 seats will reach 31,000-plus by 2030, compared with the 15,000 recorded in January.

The call suggests that in the coming years more passengers could be travelling from Luton Airport to London after flying in the bigger crafts.

However the biggest demand for passenger aircraft will come from China, the US and Germany, the firm said.

Europe is expected to receive 22% of the total number of new planes, with the USA taking 22% and the Asia-Pacific region 34%

It was also forecast that airlines need some 5,000 smaller planes, seating 19-100 people, to cope with regional demand.

By 2020 domestic flights in the US are likely to account for the biggest percentage of passenger aircraft movement, according to the firm.

The firm also predicted that by 2030 the world’s middle class will swell to 4.9 billion. It said this would grow from last year’s figure of 1.84 billion to 3.25 billion in 2020 and onwards.

And it claimed that by 2020 low-cost airlines will account for 19% of all air traffic, underpinning a trend which has seen surging numbers of people flock to airports like Stansted and Gatwick before jetting off on cheap flights.

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People who show very little emotion when they lie could soon be caught out by a new lie detector test which examines changes in facial expressions and blood flow.

The test, which could be piloted at an airport like Heathrow, Stansted, Gatwick or Luton, uses cameras and computer software to recognise faces that appear to be untruthful.

Tell-tale signs like lip-biting, slips of the tongue, nose wrinkling and blinking are all registered, while thermal imaging is used to measure flushing and blood-flow patterns around the eyes.

It is hoped that police and border officials could use this technology to detect suspected criminals or terrorists.

Given that the cameras can be positioned out of sight up to three metres away from the person in question, the suspect would not know that they are being monitored by the lie detector.

Despite the UK scientists who created this technology wanting to trial it at an airport in the UK, it has not yet been determined what form of study will be adopted.

In traditional polygraph lie detector tests, subject are wired up to equipment that measures blood pressure, pulse, heart rate, respiration and electrical skin activity.

The system is, however, far from 100% accurate as people can use a range of techniques, such as controlling breathing and heart rate, in order to “beat” the test.

However, subjects would have difficulty manipulating their body responses during the new test as they would not know when they were being scrutinised.

At an airport, the test could be used covertly on passengers at check-in or immigration.

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A consumer group has claimed that some passengers are losing out when it comes to refunds for Air Passenger Duty (APD) departure tax.

The Air Travel Advisory Bureau (ATAB) has claimed that “tens of millions of pounds” in refunded APD for unused tickets has been withheld from passengers by a number of airlines.

The bureau has brought in London law firm Barket Gillette LLP to help fight for the rights of affected passengers, some of whom will have flown from the major UK airports such as Heathrow and Stansted.

ATAB chairman Tony White said that the tax is collected on behalf of the Government and never belonged to the airlines concerned. 

He added: “With a couple of exceptions, most of the UK airlines make it as difficult as possible to get your money back. If you don’t actually fly, for whatever reason, you are entitled to get the APD refunded.”

Barker Gillette LLP partner Steven Barker said: “Our primary aim will be to ensure that all claims are valid and properly made out. We hope and expect that airlines will co-operate with us in agreeing and refunding valid claims and that claimants need only seek the assistance of the courts in respect of legal issues that might not be agreed.”

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Stansted is one of two UK airports that must be sold by operator BAA, competition chiefs have ruled.

The Competition Commission’s (CC) final ruling states BAA must sell Stansted Airport followed by either Edinburgh or Glasgow.

The airport operator, which owns six sites including Heathrow, will start the sale process in three months.

But the CC added that this could take place “sooner if undertakings are accepted from BAA in the meantime”.

The latest announcement follows a provisional ruling on the sales of Stansted and other airports in March.

It will also bring to an end a two-year long saga over BAA’s airport ownership, which began in March 2009.

In the 2009 ruling BAA was told to sell Stansted Airport, either Glasgow or Edinburgh, and Gatwick, which has since been sold.

But the CC findings were disregarded by BAA after the firm set out a string a legal challenges to the ruling.

The commission then had to look into whether any material changes in circumstances may have taken place since 2009.

The CC found that the airport sales were justified after considering the latest ruling and the provisional findings in March.

It said that passengers visiting Stansted, Gatwick, Edinburgh or any other airport would benefit from added competition under the separate ownership.

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The Government has signalled that security in airports will become more “passenger-friendly”.

As part of the plans, there will be wider flexibility in the way that passengers travelling through airports across the country, including Heathrow and Stansted, are screened.

Transport secretary Philip Hammond said he wanted to move in a different direction ”from the current highly-prescriptive one-size-fits-all approach” that is currently being applied in airports.

Instead, he said he wanted a new system which “maintains and improves security standards but in a more efficient and passenger-friendly way”.

Mr Hammond, who announced the consultation on aviation security, said: “I therefore propose that the Government should move from prescribing security processes to setting security outcomes.

“This will give airports and airlines greater flexibility to deliver high standards of security in ways that are better integrated with their day-to-day business and designed around the needs of the passenger.”

The introduction of a new security regime could see certain practices, such as making passengers take off their shoes, become a more selective process.

Mr Hammond said it was still ”of paramount importance” to the Government that passengers are safe and secure, and plans were being proposed to make all airport industry operators create and implement a security management system.

This move would highlight that there is a strong commitment to provide an overall high level of security, and demonstrate how UK and EU-specified security outcomes would be met, he added.

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