Number of people flying these days

Seakay

thescouselander wrote: »

That may be true but I still stand behind my original statement. Such and expansion would need a large expansion in airports within the UK all of which would need planning permission. What are the chances of this permission being granted given the public opposition to such projects.

Also, there is only so much capacity to handel air traffic in our airspace. I fly quite often for work and I'm often delayed by restrictions put in place by air traffic contol due to congestion.

Doubling passenger numbers is not as easy as just buying twice as many aircraft!

Planning permission is almost always fought at a local level, but there is often insidious government help for these projects - eg the deputy PM give authority to BAA to make compulsary purchases in the Stanstead area, even though permission for expansion has not been granted. Some people resist these purchases for as long as possible, but a great deal of pressure is applied, and as some sell up and land and buildings become unkempt etc then there is more worry etc for those who are left and who receive frequent letters, brochures etc telling them that if they don't sell then they will suffer financially in the end and may also face legal proceedings.

On a not more relevent to the comments of the OP, I do still fly on holiday although to be honest if it wasn't for my OH's love of sun I probably wouuld have stopped out of a feeling of guilt; I do feel that the recycling etc which I do is useful in itself but it does seem small compared to the flying thing.

What I have never been able to find is a good comparison of all the effects of all ways of travelling, eg:

Are roads better or worse than railway racks?
Is the concrete footprint of an airport with all the energy consumption of the buildings better or worse that the motorway stopping spots or railway stations?