§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he expects to start the consultation on a new night noise regime at(a) Heathrow, (b) Gatwick and (c) Stansted. [145636]
§ Mr. DarlingIn the first half of this year.
§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport (1) if he will define the phrase "longer term" in the context of paragraph 11.103 of, The Future of Air Transport; [145638]
(2) pursuant to paragraph 11.103 of The Future of Air Transport what his conclusion is regarding future use of White Waltham airfield. [145639]
§ Mr. DarlingIn paragraphs 12.15 to 12.18 of the SERAS consultation, the Department asked for views on the potential of six existing business aviation sites including Farnborough, Northolt and Southend, to accommodate future demand for business aviation. This took account of the findings from the Department's study of business aviation in the South East which was published as the part of the consultation in July 2002.
In addition to these sites, the business aviation study also considered that two predominantly general aviation airfields, White Waltham and North Weald, were well located to meet some of the demand for business aviation in the longer term, but the case for White Waltham would be largely dependent on the future provision of capacity at Luton, Farnborough, and Northolt during the 30 year period of the White Paper. Consequently, the White Paper recognised this potential but did not arrive at any conclusions about whether White Waltham should be expanded to meet demand for business aviation.