Andrew Gwynne
Main Page: Andrew Gwynne (Labour - Denton and Reddish)Department Debates - View all Andrew Gwynne's debates with the Department for Transport
(10 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mr McLoughlin
The commission has had to work on the basis of what is actually happening in aviation: Heathrow has 99% usage and Gatwick is also filling up, but other airports in London are not as busy at the moment. So it is right that the commission has done the overall work and the proper work, and has made an interim suggestion. The Davies commission does also talk about the importance of regional airports, and nobody is denying that; I would much prefer more services to be available for people so that they would not necessarily have to travel into London to use an airport of demand. However, the availability of services does attract a lot of passengers to airports in the south-east.
Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)
New airport capacity must go hand in hand with our efforts to reduce CO2 omissions from aviation, as the Secretary of State mentioned in his statement. Given that his Government abandoned the UK’s target to be at or below 2005 levels by 2050, what guarantees can he give to the House to ensure that those considerations are included in the final plans?
Mr McLoughlin
If the hon. Gentleman takes time to reflect and to look at the various appointments to the commission, he will see that we have taken incredibly seriously the environment and our environmental commitments.