Air travel expansion is expected to continue despite mixed messages from the Government as it responds to growing concern over climate change.
On Thursday the Department for Transport was expected to reaffirm plans to build a third runway at Heathrow, as outlined in its The Future of Air Transport White Paper of 2003.
That would allow an additional 500 flights a day at the airport, despite Chancellor Gordon Brown’s doubling of air passenger duty last week, claiming the £1 billion a year raised would benefit the environment.
In the same pre-Budget report that imposed the APD rise, the Treasury stated: “Further expansion of UK airport capacity is needed… to avoid the economic consequences of constraining aviation growth.”
The Government approved expansion at Heathrow on condition the airport met targets on air and noise pollution levels.
The go-ahead will please airlines based at Heathrow, especially British Airways, which can look forward to opening Terminal 5 in 2008.
BA chief executive Willie Walsh has warned that major companies might quit the UK if a third runway is delayed.
However, environmental groups and opponents of the expansion will accuse the Government of hypocrisy.
Friends of the Earth claimed carbon dioxide emissions from Heathrow flights alone will increase by 40% if the runway is built .
A coalition of 12 London boroughs this week launched a campaign group called 2M, claiming to represent two million people in the Heathrow area, to oppose the expansion.
Yet industry leaders are also alive to the lack of clarity in ministers’ thinking. One senior source told Travel Weekly: “It’s questionable whether there is any coherence [in Government policy]. We have yet to see anything meaningful about restrictions on demand or on emissions.”