Pledge Against Airport Expansion

The Case Against Airport Expansion

The Government's Aviation White Paper, published in December 2003, outlined the biggest single programme of expansion the UK will have ever seen

In the White Paper the Government said that it expects the number of passengers using UK airports to nearly treble by 2030.

To meet this demand the Government said that new runways would probably be required at Stansted, Heathrow or Gatwick, Birmingham, Edinburgh and most likely Glasgow. Nearly all the country's other airports would see significant expansion.

The Government made it clear that it would neither pay for nor build the runways. But the White Paper has provided a charter for the aviation industry and developers to proceed with airport expansion.

Unless the expansion plans are stopped, the timetable for expansion is

• Building a second runway at Stansted to open by 2011/12
• Building a third runway at Heathrow to open by 2015/20 (but only if the air pollution problems around Heathrow, which could exceed the EU legal limits, can be sorted out)
• If Heathrow cannot be expanded, building a second runway at Gatwick, after 2019
• Making full use of the full-length runway at Luton
• Building a new short runway at Birmingham, possibly by 2016
• Building a new runway at Edinburgh, possibly around 2020
• Safeguarding land for a possible second runway at Glasgow
• Considering a new terminal at Manchester
• Considering runway extensions at Bristol, Leeds / Bradford, Liverpool and Newcastle

The consequences of this level of expansion for the environment and local communities will be immense

• Aviation is the fastest-growing contributor to climate change. Not only are airplanes heavy users of fuel, but the way that jet engines burn that fuel - producing nitrous oxides and high level clouds - triples its climate change impacts. Currently flying contributes 3.5% of global warming emissions world-wide. This could rise to 15% by 2050. If these expansion plans go ahead, aviation emissions will scupper the Government's targets on climate change.
• Ancient woodlands, habitats, listed buildings across the country are all at risk. Air pollution around airports will continue to rise. New runways will also generate more car traffic and invariably will require new or wider roads.
• The noise experienced by people living around airports or under flight paths will grow. There is no prospect of significantly quieter planes coming on-stream over the next 30 years. Already people under the flight paths to the busiest airports have to endure a plane every 90 seconds. They say it is 'like living under a sky of sound.'

But aviation is also taking money out of the economy

The demand to fly is being artificially created by the tax concessions received by the aviation industry. It pays no VAT on tickets and no fuel tax on aviation fuel. Demand can be cut by imposing a fair rate of tax on aviation. It probably requires international agreement to tax fuel on international flights, but other measures could be taken to manage demand.

• The UK economy loses around £9 billion a year in taxation because aviation fuel is tax-free and all aviation transactions are VAT-free.
• The deficit in aviation tourism amounts to £11 billion a year - that is the difference between what Britons flying abroad spent in other countries and what visitors to this country spend here.
• In addition, the airports industry receives huge subsidies hidden in government funding for regional development and roads and airport infrastructure.

The UK Government could

• tax fuel on internal flights
• increase the rate of Air Passenger Duty
• work with other European countries to impose an Emissions Charge on all flights using European airports

Wouldn't taxes hit poor people the hardest?

The figures don't bear this out: the most frequent flyers are in the top 10% of income-earners. They benefit most from the current tax concessions.

In a typical year:

• less than 50% of the population flies at all
• the poorest 10% hardly ever fly
• of those that do fly, only 11% come from poorer background (social classes D and E)
• even on budget airlines, 75% of the trips are made by the upper and middle classes (social classes A,B,C)

and

• the impact of aviation expansion on poor people in the developing world could be devastating. These are the people who will be worst affected by global warming, who have few rights, have little choice about where they live and who are the least likely people on the planet to set foot aboard an aeroplane.

For more information about the case against airport expansion see the resources on our links page.