Is Airport Expansion Really Necessary?
As UK airports embark upon significant expansion plans many people are asking ‘is airport expansion really necessary?’
The demand for air transport has seen a rapid growth over the past 8 years, largely due to two basic factors: People, generally, have more disposable income and the price of tickets has fallen dramatically due to low cost airlines. Forecasts indicate that air travel could treble over the forthcoming 30 years.
Environmental scientists have issued warnings regarding the enormously detrimental impact that air transport has upon global climate change, local air quality and the quality of life of people living near airports. The Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution, the Environmental Audit Committee and the Sustainable Development Commission all strongly oppose airport expansion plans.
One of the key arguments presented for continued expansion is that it is necessary to support local economic growth. For example, this was the argument used to overturn restrictions at Aberdeen Airport which meant that aircraft could not use the airport between the hours of 22:30 and 06:00, due to the noise pollution suffered by local residents. Aircraft can now use the airport 24 hours a day and local residents are having to bear the disturbance that this is causing. The runway at Aberdeen airport is now being extended to accommodate larger aircraft which will bring more passengers and potentially more money for local industries, along with increased pollution.
But does economic growth justify the environmental and local impact of airport expansion and more aircraft in the air?
It has become so cheap and easy for people to hop on a plane for short breaks and holidays abroad, and this has resulted in a tourism deficit of around £10 billion that people spend overseas, which is not brought back into the country by tourists coming here each year. This has largely been brought about by these remarkably cheap air tickets from bargain air transport operators like Easyjet and Ryannair. In some ways this may be seen as a good thing as wealth is transferred from the affluent west into developing parts of the world.
One particularly interesting fact to note is that over 25% of all aircraft passenger seats are actually empty. Planes are sticking to their schedules but many are only part-full. Surely it would make more sense to utilise this wasted resource more efficiently. If systems were introduced to ensure that aircraft are actually full, then fewer flights would be required to transport the same number of passengers.
It seems clear that the negative impact of airport expansion is currently being disregarded in favour of the economic benefits that larger airports will bring to local and national economies. But this is a very short-sighted position that is likely to result in unrecoverable damage to the environment, climate and the quality of lives of those living near any of the expanding UK airports.
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Written by Hybrid on May 19th, 2008 with
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