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Airport clash
A VETERAN airport campaigner and a Manchester MP clashed at a meeting of the Commons Transport Select Committee over to cost of air travel.
Jeff Gazzard, who lives near Manchester Airport and is a long-time opponent of the second runway, claimed that it is now as cheap to fly to Prague as catch a taxi into Manchester and demanded that air fares should be put up to discourage people from flying.
He was called to give evidence to the Committee - which is preparing a report into the future of aviation – as a director of the Aviation Environment Federation…and faced Blackley MP Graham Stringer who once led Manchester City Council - the airport’s biggest shareholder.
Submitting, Manchester Airport’s passenger figures, Mr Gazzard said: “We have some concerns that regional airports are overstating their case for expansion.
“The airport’s forecasts when seeking to build a second runway were a target of almost 30 million passengers by 2005 – actual numbers were 22 million representing a staggering 27 per cent shortfall.
“Similarly, aircraft movements are way below forecast too. This means that the economic benefits claimed at the time construction permission for the second runway was sought and obtained will also be significantly lower than predicted.
“We would ask the committee to note this underperformance by the UK’s largest airport outside London and the South East.”
Mr Stringer told him: “You do not like aviation and you are targeting it even though it only contributes five per cent of the pollution.
“How do you say to my constituents earning £15,000 a year and can just about manage one holiday a year to the Costa Brava that they should pay more?”
Mr Gazzard, who had also clashed with Sheffield MP Angela Smith about raising fares for ordinary people by imposing air passenger duty, replied: “People who fly once a year to the Costa Brava need have anything to fear from between £3 and £30 of the price of air tickets.”