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Proceeding with caution
Half the population now flies at least once a year and demand is expected to increase to between two and three times the current levels by 2030. And with the additional increase in freight traffic, which has doubled since 1990, some major airports are already close to capacity.
Concern over airport capacity is compounded by the fact that Britain’s economy increasingly depends on air travel. The aviation industry directly supports around 200,000 jobs and indirectly up to three times that. It also contributes around £13bn to UK GDP, two per cent of the total economy.
In producing its air transport white paper in December 2003, the government aimed to set out a 30-year framework for the future of UK air travel. It consulted widely on its proposals and received a massive 500,000 responses to the seven regional consultation documents. Key concerns for the Department for Transport in considering where airport development may be needed were greenhouse gas emissions, noise pollution, planning ‘blight’, safety and security, and support for regional air services and airport development.
And in a bid to take a ‘balanced approach’ to the proposals, it also considered a range of social and economic factors, including considering the rights and interests of those affected by airports and aiming to ensure that the price of air travel reflects its environmental and social impacts.
Key proposals in the paper combine the needs of the whole UK with a series of recommendations for each of the seven designated regions. To meet environmental concerns, it chiefly proposed that the aviation industry be brought within the European Union emissions trading scheme – meaning companies must keep within set limits by reducing their own emissions and/or buying additional ‘allowances’ from others who reduce their emissions.
To tackle local impacts around airports, the paper proposed new legislation and economic instruments to control development as well as improved technology and more stringent planning conditions.
Noise will be limited, with stricter controls on the areas around airports, coupled with more research into low-noise aircraft, more use of noise-related landing charges, and moves to ensure that private properties around airports are insulated against noise.
To boost regional economic development, the government will intervene to protect slots at London hubs for flights from regional airports.
The government also says it expects airport operators to develop appropriate plans to ensure easy and reliable access for airports and to contribute to the costs of the additional infrastructure or services needed.
So how does all this translate into specific plans for the future of the UK’s airports? For Scotland, the most headline-grabbing decision was the ditching of plans for a new Central Scotland airport. Similarly in Wales, plans for a new airport near Newport were not taken forward.
In Northern Ireland, the development of Belfast International Airport garnered support and in the North of England, plans for the expansion of terminal facilities at Manchester, Liverpool John Lennon Airport, Newcastle, Teesside International and Leeds Bradford International airports were all given government support.
A second runway at Birmingham International airport was given the green light in the Midlands consultation, while in the South West, Bristol International Airport will see a runway extension and new terminal when it is needed.
For the South East, the paper said the first priority was to make best use of the existing runways at the major airports. And beyond that, it supported the building of two new runways in the South East in the period to 2030 – a second runway at Stansted (in the 2012-2020 period) and a third for Heathrow as soon as possible after that.
The white paper means that for the aviation industry, over the next 30 years at least, growth on all levels is inevitable. And it seems certain that there will be no let-up in demand for services.
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