This year around half the UK population will fly at least once. Whether for business or pleasure, the option to fly no longer remains the preserve of the affluent. This is because the last decade has seen the emergence of a new, competitive, customer-focused industry – providing more choice than ever, not only in how we fly or where to, but – and of equal importance to passengers – where from.

Just two months into my role as aviation minister I’ve yet to fly on official business, but when I do, I’m hoping it will be from Robin Hood Airport, close to my Lincoln constituency. It’s a part of the world that hasn’t been well-served with air services in the past, yet after just one year in operation the airport saw one million passengers pass through its doors to and from 40 different destinations across the world.

Airport growth is good news for the regions, not just for people like me who want to travel from an airport near their homes, but for the local economies as passenger growth also attracts investment and creates jobs. East Midlands Airport for example, directly employs over 6,500 people and supports another 10,000 jobs within the region.

And this economic impact operates at a national level too. In 2003 aviation added over £10bn to the UK economy (about one per cent of all UK economic activity) and directly employed over 200,000 people, with three times as many again employed indirectly.

In short, aviation is a major success story in which the UK has a world-leading industry. Failure to allow some level of expansion would have serious consequences for both national and local economies. Without a thriving air industry, our international competitiveness would be seriously undermined.

But we know the impacts that this growth will have on the environment and on those who live in the communities around our airports – particularly if unchecked. That is why the 2003 air transport white paper sets out a sustainable balance between the importance of aviation and our desire to travel with the need to reduce its environmental impacts. It states clearly where expansion is supported and where it is not, where stringent conditions must be met before developments can be considered, and where the international community and the industry itself must take responsibility for reducing adverse affects, some of which are already being minimised.

The UK has made considerable progress, with noise for example. Between 1995 and 2004, the number of people exposed to daytime aircraft noise that caused significant annoyance around Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports fell by over a quarter.

And though we will continue to enjoy the benefits of newer planes and quieter engines, the Civil Aviation Bill will strengthen the measures available to airports to tackle the effects of aircraft noise beyond their boundaries, including fines for aircraft that stray from their designated routes.

A great deal of work is also going on internationally. At the beginning of last year, few would have expected the European environment council to agree that emissions trading would be the best way of addressing the climate-change effects of aviation.

However, during our EU presidency the Commission announced plans to bring forward a legislative proposal by the end of 2006. There are many milestones to be passed before aviation is incorporated into the European emissions trading scheme, but the progress so far has been extremely heartening.

Finally, I expect the industry itself to respond to their passengers’ concerns over climate change, and I fully support the commitments to improve fuel efficiency by 50 per cent and reduce NOx emissions by 80 per cent made in the industry’s own ‘Sustainable Aviation Strategy’, as well as schemes to give passengers opportunities to offset the CO2 from their travels.

However you look at it, UK aviation is a major success story and sustainable growth, as set out in the white paper, is crucial to underpinning our world-leading position.
We have a long-term strategy that not only recognises the importance of air travel to our economy and to individuals’ social networks but also responds to the environmental challenges. We believe we are taking the right way forward and shall be reporting on progress at the end of 2006.