News: Airlines queue up to condemn Stansted plans
Flights > News > # 639 (14/12/2005)
Airlines including no-frills giants Easyjet and Ryanair have slammed plans to build a second runway at Stansted Airport , labeling the proposals “gold plated folly.”
Stansted's operators, British Airports Authority (BAA), who also run Heathrow and Gatwick airports, has announced that total costs for the project – dubbed Stansted Generation 2 - could reach £2.7 billion, and the airlines say it is passengers who will end up footing the bill.
If the second runway is given the green light Stansted's capacity would more than double from 35 million passengers a year to 76 million by 2013. Stansted currently serves 22 million passengers a year.
Stansted has been one of the great success stories of the “no-frills” phenomenon, but the airlines say the airport could lose huge amounts of business if handling charges are increased in order to fund the ambitious expansion programme.
Ryanair, who operate almost 100 routes from Stansted, have accused BAA of failing to consult with airlines about their plans. A spokesman for the Irish carrier said: “BAA has admitted that the plan would increase airport charges by 300% and even expect Gatwick and Heathrow passengers to foot part of the bill.”
He added: “ It is manifestly clear to the 20 million passengers now using Stansted that the success of the airport to date has resulted from airlines driving fares down. The BAA plan defies logic.”
In a rare moment of bonhomie between the fiercely competitive airlines, Easyjet have echoed Ryanair's comments.
Easyjet's chief executive Andrew Harrison said BAA has not listened to any of its customers.
Mr Harrison added: “This development has the support of no major UK airline and no consumer groups – it is the airport that no-one wants and no-one is prepared to pay for.
“BAA seems to have forgotten that Stansted was an unloved white elephant until the charges were dropped to attract the likes of Easyjet and in the last few years it has been one of the great success stories of European aviation. But now, BAA seems determined to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs.”
It is not just the airlines who are against Stansted's second runway. Local residents have been lobbying transport chiefs ever since the Government's controversial 2003 Aviation White Paper outlined plans to develop the north Essex airport. The Stop Stansted Expansion group say further development at Stansted would be an “environmental catastrophe.”
SSE chairman Peter Sanders said: “By no stretch of the imagination could the noise from three times as many planes at Stansted as today be ignored, nor could the impacts which would result from an extra million passengers per week travelling to and from the airport, largely by road but also on a creaking rail system.”
SSE are confident that BAA's proposals will be rejected by planning authorities. Applications have been made for a second runway on three occasions during the last 30 years and each bid has ended in failure.
Despite determined opposition, BAA remain confident they can deliver their expansion plans. BAA chief executive Mike Clasper said: “We've worked very hard in the last two years to ensure that Stansted Generation 2 will deliver great value to the UK economy, to our airlines and to people using the airport. We've also examined in great detail the environmental impacts of the project, in order to ensure that they are reduced as far as possible.”
He added: “If the planning system works as it's supposed to, and our regulator agrees a satisfactory pricing formula to remunerate our shareholders, the first phase of Stansted Generation 2 can be operational by the end of 2013.”
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