UK Airports - Essay Example

and Section # of INTODUCTION The aviation industry has been growing at colossal rates for the last 30 years. United Kingdom’s aviation sector was one of the prime subsidiaries that experienced a similar growth and was ranked second only to that of the United States. Approximately around 200 million passengers traversed the UK airports in 2002; the numbers are predicted to double by the year 2020 and touch 500 million by the year 2030. (Politics, 2008) The vital drivers behind the expansion of the UK airports for the last 30 years have been economic growth and globalization. Still today, the figures continue to show an upward trend due to the growing business and tourism. Business people want to meet their clients, suppliers and workers for their growth and others want to go abroad for holidays and to meet their extended social network. This industry also plays an important role in the support services such as manufacturing, logistics and transport of services. (BAA, 2007) The aviation centres in other countries including the European Union have been expanding their airports and hubs to cater to the growing demands of people and businesses. Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, Paris Charles de Gaulle in France, and Frankfurt in Germany has extended and have five, four and four runways respectively. At the same time, the Chinese have planned to invest $17.5 billion to expand its aviation industry to cater to the ever increasing demand and traverses between borders. (BAA, 2007) EXPANSION OF THE UNITED KINGDOM’S AIRPORTS In 2003, the UK government published a White Paper that proposed the future plans to expand the airport infrastructure across the country by 2030. The paper takes into account the future demand and capability for charter, business, scheduled and freight air travel as well as the core environmental and social impact on the society. The paper prioritized the efficient usage of the existing runways. It also acknowledged the development of two new runways in the southeast region; one at Stansted by 2012 and the other at Heathrow by 2020. The Heathrow expansion plan will also include a new terminal. At the same time, the plan preserved lands at Gatwick, Glasgow and Edinburg for the future immediate expansion of the runways on the need basis. (Craig, 2003) In the north, the white paper proposed to add a new terminal to the Manchester Airport to cope with the increasing passengers and businesses. It anticipates that the expansion could a satellite addition to the existing terminal or a new terminal from ground zero outside the current boundaries of the Manchester airport. (Craig, 2003) The expansion of the UK airports would drastically impact the United Kingdom, the global economy as well as the climate. The country expects a dramatic increase in the number of passengers by the year 2030. The country is recognized as one of the most popular tourism destinations in the global world with popular sights as Oxford, Cambridge, Thames and other places. At the same time, the contribution of the aviation sector is £13 billion to the GDP and proposes to increase in the coming years. The expansion will increase the employment opportunities for the local people, augment the destination points around the globe and save on the passenger time. It will indirectly increase the efficiency of the airports, the economy and the people. On the other hand, the expansion of the aviation sector has been the core subject of the most of the recent protest in the United Kingdom. The development will negatively impact the climate. “In the UK, flights leaving UK airports are responsible for 13% of the country’s entire ‘climate impact’1”. HEATHROW AIRPORT The expansion of the Heathrow Airport in London will involve the construction of the third runway and a sixth terminal as proposed by the BAA in the aviation paper 2003. The development of this aviation hub will have a drastic and colossal impact on the UK. The British Chamber of Commerce anticipates that this expansion will lead to an addition of £30 billion to the UK economy. (BCC, 2009) The Heathrow Airport has plunged to the fifth place in Europe in the last 20 years due to the limited space and capabilities. It is taken over by the regional competitive airports in Frankfurt and Schipol which have clear future expansion plans. It serves only 6 regional cities as compared to 21 in the former years. (BCC, 2010) “Connectivity is vital to the UK economy as businesses seek to develop new global opportunities that will allow them to generate wealth and jobs. Without additional capacity at our major hub airport, we will continue to fall behind our Continental competitors.  The age old phrase ‘time is money’ is apt as we look for solutions going forward. We must invest now to safeguard our economic future or we risk wasting £30 billion fumbling around for an alternative2.” Coping with Capacity Constraints The Heathrow Airport has been operating at the optimal level of 99 percent as compared to the other airports operating at 70 percent. The airport has only two runways as compared to four runways at the regional competitive airports. Therefore, its efficiency to operate as a hub was being hindered by the limited capacity. As a result, over the years the destination points of this airport had fallen from 227 in 1990 to 180 in 2007. At the same time, the domestic destinations had fallen from 20 in 1995 to 9 in 2007. Therefore, the capacity constraints had deeply undermined the efficiency and the revenue generating capacity of the airport. (CBI, 2007) Demand for Heathrow Airport Expansion The Heathrow airport is essential for maintaining the prime links to the globalized developed world and serve as a vital contact to financial hub of London. The Oxford Economic survey showed that 90 percent of the companies marked Heathrow airport as a vital link to the London economy. (CBI, 2007) “85 per cent of respondents to a recent survey said that a third runway at Heathrow was either ‘important’ or ‘very important’ to their business3” Therefore, the demand for the third runway and a sixth terminal at the airport is soaring and considered prime for the financial future of the country. Economic Impact This expansion will save time for the passengers as well as increase productivity between £8.6 billion to £12.8 billion. It would also result in newer flight destinations which would further save flight time and eliminate the waiting and transferring period. It will increase the destinations by augmenting regional cities as well as the BRIC economies such as India and China. (BCC, 2009) The third runway at the Heathrow airport is expected to generate and contribute additional £7 billion to GDP in a wide economic context while overshadowing the trifling £400 million in environment costs. (CBI, 2007) The extended economic benefits include increased employment opportunities to the skilled labour force as well as movement of more experienced businessmen through the London Airports. Environmental Impact On the other hand, the Heathrow Airport expansion will also negatively impact the lives of the Londoners as well as the global world in the long run. This development would mean the traversing of the 220,000 more planes per year over London. This means that Heathrow would become the largest carbon dioxide producer in UK: 23.6 million tons per year as well as increased noise and pollution. It is believed that it will consume a third of the entire UK carbon budget between today and 2050. (Greenpeace, 2010) Social Impact There will a limited negative impact on the society and community as a whole. Over 700 homes and some major buildings are expected to be bulldozed for the expansion of the airport. A church and a graveyard are also likely to be levelled to make way. Therefore, the community will have to be relocated and equally compensated but it will cause trouble and hardships for a lot of people. At the same time, the people living near the airports suffer from the high nitrogen oxide and particulate matter in the air and therefore, develop breathing problems in the long run. Therefore, the prices of the houses fall due to the expansion. (BAA, 2007) (Craig, 2003) The expansion of the Heathrow Airport has been currently put on hold by the new coalition government as on May 12, 2010. “Each year the runway is delayed costs the country £1bn4.” CONCLUSION The airport expansions especially at the Heathrow Airport in the United Kingdom are vital for the country’s future prosperity, connectivity and competitiveness. This development will boost the airport’s capability to compete with the regional hub centres and regain the lead position in Europe. It will allow the country to cater to the increasing demand of the passengers, increasing freight and logistics as well as tourism. This expansion will answer to the capacity constraints, increased journey times and increase connectivity to the global world. At the same time, the airport expansion concerns need to prioritize the green agendas such as using more efficient jets and becoming greener by reducing the carbon emissions, nitrogen oxides and particulate matter and following the international standards. BIBLIOGRAPHY Great Britain: Parliament: House of Commons: Transport Committee. (2008) The future of BAA: fourth report of session 2007-08, report, together with formal minutes, oral and written evidence. The Stationary Office. Hanlon. (2006) Global Airlines Butterworth-Heinemann BAA (2007) Corporate Social Responsibility Report. BAA. Accessed on Nov 18, 2010 from www.baa.com/corporateresponsibility BBC. (2010) Bristol Airport expansion given go-ahead. Accessed on Nov 17, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/bristol/somerset/8700056.stm BBC. (2008) Airport Expansion. Politics. Accessed on Nov 18, 2010 from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/4278027.stm BCC. ( 2009) A third runway at Heathrow would add £30 billion to UK economy, says new study. British Chamber of Commerce. Accessed on Nov 19, 2010 from http://www.britishchambers.org.uk/zones/policy/press-releases_1/a-third-runway-at-heathrow-would-add-30-billion-to-uk-economy-says-new-study.html Craig, I. (2003) White Paper paves way for airport expansion. Manchester Evening-news. Accessed on Nov 18, 2010 from http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/76/76014_white_paper_paves_way_for_airport_expansion.html Greenpeace. (2010) The Case against Airport Expansion.Greenpeace. House of Commons. (2009) Expansion of Heathrow Airport. House of Commons. Accessed on Nov 19, 2010 from http://www.parliament.uk/documents/commons/lib/research/rp2009/rp09-011.pdf CBI (2007) Heathrow Airport Expansion. CBI. Accessed on Nov 23, 2010 from http://www.cbi.org.uk/pdf/CBI-Transport-Heathrow.pdf Wagner, S. (2010) Airport expansion ban could damage UKs prosperity. The Engineer. Accessed on Nov17, 2010 from http://www.theengineer.co.uk/news/news-analysis/airport-expansion-ban-could-damage-uks-prosperity/1003589.article Read More