Implications of South East airport expansion for regional airports
Aviation Environment Federation have published the report ‘Implications of South East airport expansion for regional airports’. Key findings from the report include:
- Building a new runway in the South East would in practice mean that airport capacity elsewhere would need to be reduced in order for UK aviation to keep within carbon limits required by the Climate Change Act. This could involve closure of a number of regional airports.
- Government policy, however, supports the growth of regional airports, and official forecasts anticipate that they will grow by over 200 per cent between now and 2050. Many airports in fact consider Government figures to be conservative. With politicians from all main parties having made commitments to supporting regional economic growth, capping or reducing aviation activity outside the South East would therefore require very significant hurdles to be overcome.
- By contrast, with full utilisation of current airport capacity, it would be challenging but achievable to keep aviation emissions to a level compatible with the Climate Change Act.