Written ministerial statement on Stansted Airport

LONDON – The Secretary of State for Transport Mr.

LONDON – The Secretary of State for Transport Mr. Geoff Hoon made the following statement in the House of Commons: My honorable friend, the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, and I have decided to grant planning permission to change two planning conditions attached to the Stansted airport 2003 permission.

This relates to an appeal by BAA plc and Stansted Airport Ltd following the
refusal of planning permission by Uttlesford District Council in November 2006.

The decision allows for an increase in the number of flights to and from
the airport in a year from 241,000 to 264,000 air traffic movements and
an increase in the maximum number of passengers using the airport from 25
million to 35 million per annum.

The reasons are set out in the Secretaries of State’s decision letter,
copies of which have been placed in the House Libraries, together with the
Planning Inspector’s report.

Aviation Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said, “There is an urgent need for additional runway capacity in the South East. We were clear in the Aviation White Paper that the first priority was to make best use of the existing runways, including using the remaining capacity at Stansted.

“We recognize that there have been strong views expressed about Stansted’s
expansion and all views were given the chance to be heard at the public
inquiry. Ministers thought long and hard about the case before making their
decision to allow an increase of a little under 10% in the maximum permitted
number of flights to and from the airport from 241,000 to 264,000 air traffic
movements a year. Their reasons are set out clearly in the decision letter.

“Air travel is essential to the United Kingdom’s economy and to our continued
prosperity. The aviation industry directly employs 200,000 people with a
further 600,000 jobs supported indirectly.”

The decision letter, reports and CLG link are at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/aviation/airports/decisionletters/stansted/

The above written Ministerial Statement was laid in the House of Commons
this morning.

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Linda Hohnholz

Editor in chief for eTurboNews based in the eTN HQ.

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