Foreword
Air travel is essential to the United Kingdom's economy and to our continued prosperity. In the last 30 years there has been a five-fold increase in air travel. And it has opened up opportunities that for many simply did not exist before; half the population flies at least once a year, and many fly far more often than that.
The challenge we face is to deal with the pressures caused by the increasing need to travel whilst at the same time meeting our commitment to protect the environment in which we live.
Our economy depends on air travel. Many businesses, in both manufacturing and service industries, rely on air travel; and it is particularly important for many of the fastest growing sectors of the economy. Visitors by air are crucial to UK tourism. Air freight has doubled in the last 10 years; one third by value of all goods we export go by air. And 200,000 people are employed in the aviation industry, with three times as many jobs supported by it indirectly.
All this puts pressures on airports, some of which are at, or fast approaching, capacity. And environmental problems cause genuine concern for their impact on people near airports, as well as for the global environment. We need to plan ahead so we can continue to benefit from the economic and social advantages of air travel, but also to deal with the impacts of increasing air transport for the environment.
This White Paper sets out a measured and balanced approach providing a strategic framework for the development of air travel over the next 30 years.
The Government consulted on a range of options covering the whole of the UK. And, illustrating the importance of the issues, half a million people gave their views.
Our starting point is that we must make best use of existing airport capacity. We have concluded against proposals to build new airports at a number of locations. In every case we considered the consequences would be severe and better options are available.
We want to encourage growth at regional airports, and we have concluded that increased capacity is needed at a number of airports across the country, including some new runway capacity, more terminal capacity and support facilities.
In the South East, there are particular environmental concerns about expansion at the main London airports, but balanced against this there is the importance of these airports to the South East and to the UK's prosperity. Failure to provide some additional capacity could have substantial repercussions in the country as a whole, as well as for us individually.
Taking a measured and balanced view of all these concerns, we have concluded that provision should be made for two additional runways in the South East over the next three decades.
With these conclusions we have set stringent environmental conditions which developers will need to meet to take proposals forward. And the White Paper includes other proposals to limit and mitigate the impact air transport has on the environment, including its impact on global warming.
Here we set out a framework for the future development of air transport over the next 30 years. It is essential we plan ahead now - our future prosperity depends on it.
Rt Hon Alistair Darling MP
Secretary of State for Transport
December 2003
