Air travel is vital to the economic and social well-being of this country. The Government's White Paper on the future of aviation will crucially shape the development of aviation over the next 30 years and will affect the UK economy, society and environment.

What issues will the White Paper have to address?

The central debate is over airport capacity. Should we allow unconstrained growth without regard to the environmental costs or do we prevent any growth – with worrying economic implications? Predictably enough the answer lies somewhere in between. The Government's White Paper must outline at least how much airport expansion it expects and where any short-term expansion should occur. It must also reach a balance of interest between those using air travel and those living near airports or under flight paths.

The problem for the Government is that the benefits of aviation are not immediately tangible and transparent. The disadvantages, in the shape of air and noise pollution, are obvious and immediate. The temptation is to restrict air capacity growth or allow growth under strict environmental constraints.

There are other ways to increase effective capacity besides building new runways and airports. We have excellent regional airports in this country. They should be encouraged to provide many of the short-haul routes to Europe that currently fly from London. This would provide a better service for passengers in the regions, boost economic developments there and relieve some of the capacity problems at London airports.

The Government should be doing more to encourage high-speed rail links between major UK cities and other EU destinations in order to relieve some of the burden on London's airports and free capacity for use on other, longer-haul, routes where there is no potential for rail replacement. The Government's aviation strategy will cover thirty years yet their broader transport plan is based on the failing Ten Year Plan. This does not make for ‘joined-up thinking' about transport solutions and should be rectified.

Aircraft flying in and out are not the only source of atmospheric and noise pollution at airports. Surface access routes must be improved at airports. Especially at Heathrow, pollution from road vehicles and the congestion they cause on airport approaches and adjacent motorways are real problems that the Government must resolve as part of their wider transport strategy.

The environmental impact of aviation should be addressed. While there is talk of charging tax on aviation fuel as on other fuel types, this would only serve to restrict the competitiveness of UK airlines and airports if imposed unilaterally. These kinds of blunt demand management measures must be rejected. We should not aim to reduce access to air travel but introduce incentives for airlines and airports to invest in new techniques and technologies to make aviation less damaging to local communities and the global environment.

There are big challenges facing this Government over aviation. Aviation brings great economic benefits but it also creates environmental problems. It is possible though to minimise the environmental costs without doing undue economic damage – the Government must achieve this.