Lord Spicer
Main Page: Lord Spicer (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Spicer's debates with the Department for Transport
(13 years, 5 months ago)
Lords Chamber
To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether they plan to provide for sufficient capacity in the London airport system to accommodate the forecast expansion of passenger demand.
My Lords, the Government are not in the business of predict and provide. We are committed to developing a new policy framework for the whole of UK aviation which supports economic growth and addresses aviation’s environmental impacts. The Department for Transport expects to publish passenger demand forecasts later this year to support the development of the framework.
If, as anticipated, Heathrow cannot take the strain, which London airport will? Perhaps I should add that I ask that Question as a former Minister for Aviation.
My Lords, the Government have set up the South East Airports Task Force to look at how we can make airports in the south-east better, but not bigger.