Campaigners say Heathrow third runway would lead to rise in air fares

Analysis of Airports Commissions backing for new runway reveals significantly higher air fares.

According to analysis of the Airports Commission’s backing for a third runway to be built at Heathrow Airport, the decision to go ahead would lead to a significant rise in the cost of flights due to carbon pricing.

Campaign for Better Transport (CBT) published the report, which claims that carbon pricing, a measure suggested by the commission to ensue British aviation targets stayed on target, would add hundreds of points to air fares by 2050.

The CBT report, Air Traffic Controls, claims that the additional carbon price to offset the growing demand in air travel from a new runway could come to more than the cost of the ticket itself on some flights. The extra costs, implied but not previously calculated, would be up to £127 for return flights from Manchester to Tenerife, £148 from Newcastle to Sharm el-Sheikh or £221 from London to Florida.

The CBT report shows price rises are likely to see regional airports decline while London’s grow

Leo Murray, one of the report’s authors, said: “There has been far too little scrutiny of the Airports Commission’s proposals for squaring airport expansion in the south-east with the UK’s climate change targets, with the details hidden deep inside hundreds of pages of technical reports. Building a new runway, while still meeting our climate change commitments, is expected to add hundreds of pounds to the cost of flights from all of the UK’s airports if the commission’s proposals are enacted.”

However, Julia King, a member of the Committee on Climate Change, says that predicting fare for 2050 was impossible, but the level was irrelevant to the commission’s verdict on runways.

“We already have enough runway capacity in Britain to exceed carbon emissions as it is,” she said. “The reality is that independently of whether we build a new runway or not, we will have to control the increase in flights.”

 

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