Sir Rod Eddington: Britain's aviation potential is being constrained

Britain’s role as a global trading nation has underpinned her economic success for centuries. That success was built around her ports and airports, her shipping companies and airlines.

Inward investment, jobs and productivity growth have followed. It’s a virtuous circle. But it is now at risk, and has been for some time.

Our major airports are full or soon will be. Aviation congestion in the South East of England is a major limit to growth. Flights to new destinations in the developing economies are limited because additional slots at London’s main airport, Heathrow, don’t exist. Competing European airports – in Paris, Frankfurt and Amsterdam have grown to take the traffic London can’t – and the new jobs have gone with them.

Britain has known this would happen for decades.

The men and women of British aviation are first rate in every way, but they are constrained in what they do by limited airport capacity. Britain’s major hub is Heathrow and it has two runways. Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam has six, Charles de Galle Airport in Paris has four.

There hasn’t been a new runway built in Britain south of Manchester since the Second World War – the short runway at London City Airport excepted. Economic growth and opportunity follow aviation success in modern economies – just look at what has been created in the last two decades around world class aviation hubs in Hong Kong, Singapore and Dubai.

As other countries take the opportunities Britain can’t, the frustration here grows. The debate to date has been won by those who are opposed to increasing capacity.

Aviation takes its environmental obligations very seriously. Modern aircraft have substantially reduced the noise footprint around airports, even with an increase in aircraft movement. The optimist in me says it’s never too late to reverse the process of decline.

Britain needs to decide what to do – and to do that quickly. New runways are needed, particularly in the South East of England and government needs to decide where they must be built. This won’t happen without cross party and community support, which is why I welcome the launch today of the “Let Britain Fly” campaign, which is bringing together concerned people from across the spectrum to make the case for a decisive response to the Commission’s recommendations. The stakes are very high. It’s time to act.