In our previous article, we referenced the speech by The Chancellor of The Exchequer, speaking in favour of expansion at Heathrow airport. Following that speech however, the UK Government Transport Committee made the following statement: –
This unexpected development is gratefully received, as throughout the Inquiry for Luton airport expansion, the stated economic benefits were challenged by several of the objecting groups. The best example to explain these economic discrepancies was a report compiled by Alex Chapman, of the New Economics Foundation:-
It is clear to anyone outside the aviation industry, and it would seem The Exchequer, that airports and airlines, as commercial organisations paying shareholders a Dividend, and they put those Dividends at the top of all their obligations.
We are now expected to believe that there has now been a complete sea-change on those principles, and that they are now prepared to put environmental controls ahead of said profits?
Like the previous Government, it is sad to see the new one is just adopting the same flawed ideology, that sustainable aviation fuels will be the “Silver Bullet” on cutting environmental pollution from aircraft operations. How the production of such fuels will be scaled up, and more crucially funded, does not appear to figure in Government thinking!
- Have they factored in the loss of agricultural land, and even deforestation such as occurred when Palm Oil was a similar “silver bullet” solution, around the world?
- Have they factored in the emissions created in production of these fuels, and delivering them around the world?
What also seemed to have been ignored is that these fuels will have no effect on cutting the noise pollution from aircraft; people affected will just have to live with that it seems. It will be interesting to see what is deemed the higher priority in Whitehall, environmental concerns, quality of life and climate change, or the quest for profits and income at any cost.