The UK economy will suffer and London will lose jobs to its European competitors unless additional airport capacity is provided in the south east, according to a report commissioned by the Mayor of London.
Increasing London's airport capacity
If unconstrained, passenger demand for London's airports could triple by 2050, and Department for Transport forecasts published in August 2011 predict that, with no new runways, the three largest London airports (Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted) will be at capacity by 2030. By 2050, these forecasts anticipate that each year, 42 million passengers from London and the south east will have to use airports outside of the region.
The Mayor believes that London’s needs would best be catered for catered for by providing a new hub airport serving London and the south east that can more readily handle London's increasing demand for flights and destinations.
Protecting our competitive edge
London is one of the world's leading cities and an international hub for business and leisure. Failure to address the future needs will adversely impact the capital's future prosperity and growth. Our European competitors are already making advances at the expense of Heathrow, which has fallen from second in 1990 to seventh in 2010, in terms of the number of international destinations served. In June 2011, Heathrow served 167 scheduled destinations directly compared to 238 from Paris Charles de Gaulle and 266 from Frankfurt.. We must take action now to secure London and the UK's economic future.
Aviation and the economy
The Mayor welcomes the Government's review of the UK's aviation sector and believes there should be a national strategy that fully recognises the economic contribution of aviation to the UK. One that also addresses the long term needs of London's economy.
In March 2011, the Department for Transport published its scoping document entitled “Developing a sustainable framework for UK aviation”. The document invites consultation responses by Thursday 20 October 2011, ahead of publishing a draft policy framework for consultation in March 2012, with formal adoption as Government policy scheduled to occur in March 2013.
The Mayor published his formal response to the scoping study in early October 2011.
Heathrow is not the answer
The capital needs greater capacity to support new air links to the growing economies of China, India and South America. The Mayor however remains opposed to any expansion of Heathrow, and believes the Government review should allow consideration of the best possible locations for accommodating this growth. Environmental constraints and wider economic benefits must also be taken into account.
A new airport for London
In January 2011, the GLA published A new airport for London: Part 1 - The Case for New Capacity from Daniel Moylan, Deputy Chairman of TfL which puts forward the economic and business case for a new hub airport for London.
A second report, A new airport for London: Part 2 - The economic benefits of a new hub airport, published in November 2011, sets out why there is an undisputable economic argument that greater aviation capacity is required both by the capital and the whole of the UK. It concludes that a new hub airport should become a pillar of the Government’s planning for economic growth and warns that without one the UK will lose its place at the top table of the global economy.
>Daniel Moylan, Deputy Chair TfLLondon and the rest of the UK have prospered greatly because of our air-links with the rest of the world. If we are to continue to prosper in future our airports and aviation links must be able to grow in a way that meets future needs
