Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment his Department has made of the adequacy of airport capacity outside the South East.

The Government established the independent Airports Commission, which assessed the capacity needs of the whole of the UK, before concluding that the country needs one additional runway in the South East by 2030 and noted that there would be a need for other airports to make more intensive use of their existing infrastructure.

The Department accepted the findings of the Airports Commission and is supportive of airports across the UK making best use of their existing runway capacity, so long as they address the economic and environmental impacts and proposed mitigations.

The Government is currently consulting on its Aviation Strategy green paper, ‘Aviation 2050; The future of UK aviation’.