News: Flight Mapping's One Minute Manifesto
Flights > News > # 422 (26/04/2005)
Flightmapping's James Avery has been asked to produce a "one minute manifesto" on the development of airports in the Midlands. Here, Mr Avery sets all the fuss over the re-start of passenger flights from Coventry in its true context:
One-minute manifesto
Congratulations to the government spin machine for pulling off the brilliant Rugby airport hoax, and shame on all local politicians for not seeing right through it!
Now the bandwagon has moved on to Coventry, and they are telling us that "David can beat Goliath once again".
Nothing could be further from the truth:
- Goliath was never going to turn up to build Rugby airport – no airline was ever remotely interested in it.
- Without the White Paper, Coventry would have its new terminal by now, so there would have been no temporary facility to argue about.
- All airport supporters are asking for is a terminal capable of handling up to 2m passengers per year – just 6% of Birmingham’s long term ambitions, without any need for the road diversions or green belt encroachment which a second runway there would cause.
The bottom line is that most of us want to enjoy cheap flights, but some people just don’t like living near airports. There are legitimate issues to be discussed in relation the contribution all forms of transport make to Global Warming. Unfortunately, the White Paper has just stirred up a hornet’s nest of nimbyism.
I hope that the next government can enable a more intelligent debate to take place instead.
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