Date published: 2005/08/06
The BBC says:
Airport expansion could result in the loss of billions of pounds from the economy as UK travellers spend money abroad, an environmental group says.
Friends of the Earth said visitors flying in spent £11b in the UK in 2004, while UK residents flying out spent £26bn abroad - a £15bn deficit.
It said if airport expansion proceeded as the government plans, the deficit would grow to £30bn annually by 2020.
An industry body said there was no evidence expansion harmed the economy.
According to the Friends of the Earth calculations, based on Office of National Statistics information, regions would miss out the most if regional airports expanded, with only London gaining.
The North East earned £177m from overseas visitors in 2004, but North East residents flying abroad spent £938m - five times as much, resulting in a deficit to the North East economy of £761m, FoE said.
One of the stupidest arguments ever made against airport expansion. Most importantly they are missing out a huge part of the picture (it is not just the amount of money visitors spend, it is the amount of business being done, and the latter almost certainly dwarfs the former). And are they suggesting that only people who live in the South of England should be allowed to fly abroad? Or are they suggesting it is better that people who live in the North of England should be forced to travel all the way to Heathrow (or wherever) if they want to fly abroad? If the FOE didn't hate airports you would almost think they are actually concerned about the British economy (touching isn't it). The FOE should stick to environmental arguments against airports, which at least have some validity (but not as much as FOE pretends). Otherwise they are just going to look plain silly. And shame on the BBC for (as usual) printing an FOE claim without bothering to consider whether it makes any sense.
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