Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the investment required to ensure that an increase in the number of air passenger numbers at Heathrow Airport following the COVID-19 pandemic does not correspond with a rise in (1) road congestion, (2) excessive carbon emissions, and (3) falling local air quality.

The Government’s clear focus at this time is responding to COVID-19 and working with the aviation industry to support recovery of the sector. Heathrow Airport will need to comply with existing air quality, carbon and other environmental requirements as passenger numbers recover. DfT is working with transport operators to ensure that public transport facilities will be available as passenger numbers return to normal. We expect environmental considerations to be a key element of the recovery. The new Jet Zero Council jointly chaired with the Secretary of State was created as a partnership between UK industry and government to drive high ambition in the delivery of new technologies and innovative ways to cut aviation emissions. It has been set up to develop new ways to tackle zero emission aviation from multiple perspectives with bold, new thinking.