UK - Red Bull has applied to Newham Council, home to the London City Airport, to create a second airport in the borough for its Red Bull Air Race World Championship.
According to the planning application, the drinks giant wants to create a new airport at the Royals Business Park equipped with helipads, aircraft hangers, a taxiway and control tower on the north side of Royal Albert Dock for its air shows, which take place along the River Thames.
London hosted the Red Bull Air Race World Championship in 2008 and it has since been held in Barcelona, Porto, Windsor Ontario, Abu Dhabi, Budapest and San Diego.
Fight the Flights, a campaign group against the expansion of London City Airport, has called for the council to reject the scheme that covers the air events until 2015. “Have the people of East London not suffered enough? MPs and local authorities from right across East London are receiving more complaints than ever before about the noise from the jets using City Airport,” says Fight the Flights chair, Anne-Marie Griffin.
“We really just don’t believe Red Bull is proposing to spend all this money on a new airport just to use it for the occasional event. We fear they will come back time and again for permission to increase the use of the new airport, just as owners of City Airport have done over the years,” she adds.
