Campaign group HACAN ClearSkies has called for a cut in short haul flights at Heathrow to improve air quality in London. It comes a day after the Mayor, Ken Livingstone, admitted that his ambitious plans to cut carbon emissions in the Capital by 60% within 20 years will be scuppered by the growth in pollution from aircraft. If Heathrow and City airports expand as the Governments wants, London’s overall emissions could only fall by 20% over the next 20 years.
At the end of last year HACAN ClearSkies produced a report which revealed that more than a fifth of all flights currently using Heathrow were to and from destinations where there is already a good rail service. It showed that Paris, with 60 flights a day, is Heathrow’s top destination. Amsterdam, in second place, has 50 flights each day. And Brussels, just over two hours from London by train, has 30 daily flights. The report showed that there are over 100,000 flights serving the twelve destinations with good rail alternatives. Last year the total number of flights using Heathrow was 473,000.
HACAN ClearSkies Chair John Stewart said, “Until the Government does something about reigning in aviation, all its talk about climate change is just empty rhetoric. Its fantasies about expanding Heathrow should be replaced by a strategic plan to reduce the number of planes using the airport. That would be good for London, good for the environment and good for residents under the flight paths.”
ENDS
Notes for editors:
(1). The research showed that in total there are around 100,000 flights each year serving the towns with the best rail connections: Edinburgh, Glasgow, Leeds, Newcastle, Manchester, Brussels, Paris, Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Middlesbrough. The full report is on the HACAN website.
For more information contact John Stewart on 0207 737 6641 or 07957385650