§ 50. Mr. Andrew MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what measures he is taking to support regional airports.
§ Mr. McLoughlinThe Government encourage the maximum use of regional airports, both to meet local demand and to relieve pressure on the London airports.
Over the past decade some £450 million of capital expenditure has been facilitated, through special borrowing approvals, for the development of local authority airports. Special borrowing approvals totalling £59 million are available for 1990–91, facilitating investment which the airports concerned estimate could total some £149 million this year.
We also very much welcome the contribution to the development of local authority airports which the private sector already makes through direct investment and joint venture schemes; and we continue to look to the airports concerned and their local authority owners to take full account of the opportunities for private sector involvement as they formulate their plans for further expansion.
The working group now being established to take forward the Civil Aviation Authority's recent advice on long-term United Kingdom airport capacity is to examine regional airports' role in meeting overall growth in demand into the next century.
We are continuing to pursue liberalisation policies, both in the European Community and in bilateral negotiations, which increase further the scope for services from our regional airports.
§ 51. Mr. Patrick ThompsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport by how much traffic through the regional airports has grown in the last 10 years; and how much it is forecast to grow.
§ Mr. McLoughlinPassenger traffic through United Kingdom regional airports grew by 90 per cent. between 1979 and 1989 (from 17.8 to 33.8 million). The Department of Transport's most recent forecasts for this traffic, published in December 1988, set out figures based on different assumptions about the growth rate of the United Kingdom economy:
(million passengers) 1995 2000 2005 Low forecast 42.1 52.4 62.6 High forecast 51.0 68.2 87.4 Note: The statistics and projections include Northern Ire' and and Isle of Man airports; they exclude Gatwick, Heathrow, London City, Luton and Stansted, and also the Channel Island airports.
68WBy comparison with 1987, the 2005 figures represent an increase in regional airports' share of total United Kingdom traffic from 33.2 per cent to between 37.3 per cent. and 38.2 per cent.