§ Mrs. MayTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport what estimates he has made of the number of people using UK airports over the next 20 years. [60431]
§ Mr. DarlingI have been asked to reply.
In the Department's last set of air traffic forecasts published in 2000, it is estimated that on central assumptions 401 million terminal passengers will be using UK airports in 2020. This corresponds to an average annual increase of 4.2 per cent. between 2000 and 2020. To reflect the uncertainties inherent in producing such long term forecasts, high and low scenarios were also produced showing projected passenger numbers in 2020 of 461 million and 349 million respectively.