Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 October 2016 to Question 50200, on Heathrow Airport: air routes, what legal mechanisms the Government plans to use to protect existing domestic routes and provide additional connectivity across the UK with new routes from Scotland, Northern Ireland and the South West and North East of England.

The Government is committed to ensuring that expansion at Heathrow benefits the whole of the UK and strengthens regional connectivity. The Government will set out mechanisms to protect and strengthen domestic services when it publishes a draft National Policy Statement in the New Year.