Airport slams climate change committee’s ‘London centric’ view
13.12.09
Birmingham Airport has slammed recommendations made by a committee of global warming experts that could see London airports expanded at the expense of other areas of the country, the Birmingham Mail reports. A spokesman for the airport hit out at a report by the Committee on Climate Change after it endorsed the Government’s support for a third runway at Heathrow and suggested Gatwick as a suitable location for expansion.
The panel, established to advise the Government on reducing greenhouse gas emissions, also proposed a restriction in growth of the number of flights available as a way of meeting emissions targets. A spokesman for Birmingham Airport, which is aiming to almost double passenger capacity to 18 million by next year, with several major investments, said the recommendations were a hammer blow to the region’s economy in the middle of a recession.
The spokesman said: ‘We will study the Committee on Climate Change’s recommendations regarding aviation and airport growth, as some seem bizarre. We are surprised that it seems to have adopted such a London-centric stance. To advocate massive expansion in the south-east, while denying regional airports such as Birmingham the chance to meet local demand – an objective set-out in the Government’s 2003 White Paper on Aviation – is preposterous.'
‘Birmingham Airport runs at only about 40% of capacity and could handle another nine million passengers tomorrow with existing infrastructure, taking the pressure off the south-east immediately. Birmingham, together with other regional airports, are strategic national transport assets and it is time that they were recognised as such. The whole of the UK should benefit from aviation expansion.’
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