Friends of the Earth Cardiff Cyfeillion y Ddaear Caerdydd

Photo: Friends of the Earth

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The Cardiff International Airport Masterplan outlines how it could grow over the upcoming years.

“Air travel is the world's fastest growing source of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, which cause climate change.” That’s the verdict from Airportwatch, along with huge numbers of environmental groups and research bodies.

Yet despite the fact that aviation is killing our planet, Cardiff Airport is planning a multi-million pound expansion to damaging flights in and out of Wales.

Cardiff Airport - flying into a storm?

At a public meeting, the airport’s head of commercial development, Steve Hodgetts, claimed that aviation contributes less than 1% to the total of carbon emissions in the UK. Persistent questioning from the public forced Hodgetts to admit that this figure was arrived at without counting the emissions from international travel (the huge bulk of flights to and from the UK). So the aviation industry is not even counting the true cost of flying when it comes up with the headline figures in defence of its business.

At the meeting the airport made it clear that it does not answer to the wishes of the people of south Wales – only the national government (i.e. big business). Even though the airport claims that expansion will bring economic benefits, Friends of the Earth estimate that by 2020 Wales alone will lose around £19billion from money leaving the country. Welsh tourists spend abroad over four times what tourists spend here. The airport’s profits come at a cost to the local economy which hurts everyone in Wales, not just those lucky enough to afford a holiday in the sun.

The BBC recently reported that the campaign of direct action against the road building frenzy of the 1990s contributed to doubling the costs involved in some cases. Given the airport’s lack of local accountability, perhaps it needs to start thinking about how much more its expansion plans might cost if they run into concerted resistance?