§ 2.50 p.m.
§ LORD FORBESMy Lords, I beg leave to ask the Question which stands in my name on the Order Paper.
§ [The Question was as follows:
§ To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans are in existence or contemplated for providing a second runway at Turnhouse Airport, the airport for Edinburgh.]
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, the case for providing a second main runway at Turnhouse Airport rests on the fact that the present runway is not well aligned with the prevailing wind and, when the wind is strong, aircraft may have to be diverted and flights cancelled. However, the number of cancellations and diversions for this reason is very small. Last year they were fewer than 1 per cent. of all actual or planned flights, whereas cancellations and diversions due to other causes which would not be removed by 947 the provision of an alternative long runway, such as bad visibility, were four times as many. My right honourable friend the Minister of Aviation is therefore not at present convinced that expenditure on a second runway, which is estimated to cost £2 million to £3 million, would be justified. Nevertheless, the line for a new runway is being safeguarded. He recognises that its provision may well be justified in due course, but thc timing of its construction must depend on the growth of traffic, on operational, economic and other factors, and on the course of discussions with the Edinburgh Corporation, to which it is hoped that the ownership of the airport will soon be transferred.
§ LORD FORBESMy Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his reply. I should like to ask him whether he has taken into consideration the fact that Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, and that there must be few other capital cities in Europe with only one runway. Secondly, is the noble Lord aware that pilots of Vanguard planes very much dislike landing at Edinburgh Airport, owing to the fact that it is seldom that the wind is dead on and it is diflicult to land a big aircraft like the Vanguard unless the wind is right?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, I do not think there is any difference between us as to the desirability of another long runway, and this is one of the matters which will no doubt come up in the discussions that take place between the Corporation and the Ministry. So far as the difficulties of pilots are concerned, my information is that sea mist is at any rate as big a menace as the cross-wind.
§ LORD BALERNOMy Lords, may I ask the noble Lord whether it is true that the rate of increae in traffic at Turn-house Airport is of the order of 20 per cent. per annum?
§ LORD BESWICKMy Lords, that is possibly the order. But it still remains a fact that has to be taken into account that the loss of revenue in landing fees because of these, diversions amounts to something like £2,000 a year. The annual capital charge for the provision of a new runway would be of the order of £200,000. So there is obviously cause for further consideration.
§ LORD BALERNOMy Lords, I thought the noble Lord implied that traffic was not increasing very rapidly.
§ LORD BESWICKNo, my Lords; I was not implying that.