Airport thoughts by Harry Mottram: As passengers board flights for a holiday abroad this summer a debate continues over whether Bristol Airport should expand to increase passenger numbers. The councillors of Bath and North East Somerset have by a majority condemned the privately owned airport’s plans to increase capacity to serve 15 million passengers a year.
The airport’s expansion plans would see 14,000 more flights a year and the runway lengthened so that larger transcontinental planes could fly from the airport – and if you have been to the airport recently you cannot help but notice the amount of building work going on.
After a legal battle the expansion plans have been given the green light which include expanding the present terminal, new multi-storey carparks and a hotel plus a bus and coach station.
Visitors to other airports will notice Lulsgate doesn’t have a tram or rail station although potentially a tramway down the A38 is feasible or a link to the main railway near Yatton along the disused line to Blagdon is possible in the future.
The new Metro Mayor Helen Godwin, North Somerset Council and B&NES all oppose the expansion – although the owners of the airport – a Canadian Teachers’ Pension Group and Australian funders and trusts plus multinational investment outfit StepStone – see the expansion as satisfying increasing customer demands.
And they said they have addressed one of the objections by aiming to make the airport carbon neutral by 2030 – that’s the airport‘s energy usage – not the airplanes. The amount of CO2 generated by the airport is small compared to the amount from the aircraft. Somerset Confidential reported on the findings by Professor John Tarlton of the Bristol Tree Forum.
They reported the professor as saying: “The airport’s energy use, which was 6,300 tonnes per annum at the time of the last expansion plan, amounted to just 0.62 per cent of the airport’s total emissions. The remaining 99.3 per cent came from flights, which generated 747,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, passenger travel to and from the airport, which generated a further 184,000 tonnes and employee travel to and from work, which generated 74,000 more tonnes of CO2 a year.”
I, like thousands of other residents in the region use the airport from time to time – as indeed do some of those who are opposed to the expansion.
The question many ask is how are we to go on a holiday to Spain or Greece or travel to France on business when the alternative is a long journey by train, coach, ferry or even car which would cost more and take longer?
Bristol’s regional rivals are Birmingham, Cardiff, Exeter and Bournemouth – none are easily accessible from Bath compared to Lulsgate although for most long-haul flights Heathrow is the main hub for travel. Alternative powered aircraft are a long way off so in the meantime many Bathonians will continue to use Bristol since the options are limited.
Note: picking up and dropping off by car – now the airport has a £7 fee to enter the drop off zone.
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Harry Mottram is a freelance journalist. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Telegram, TikTok and Email:harryfmottram@gmail.com
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