"Build Back Better is not good enough, it has to be Build Back Green if we are serious about Jet Zero" says CAGNE

Residents are asleep to the Gatwick Airport plans as thanks to the lack of aircraft noise 24/7 they are unaware of the management continuing to go-ahead with plans to rebuild the emergency runway as a second runway.

As lockdown has illustrated, as did the recession of 2008, Gatwick is not sustainable as it ignores the impact of outward-bound tourism on the UK coastal regions and on the Gatwick area. The airport is reliant upon tourism from the Gatwick Diamond region, which is also reliant upon the world economy, as over 80% of planes from Gatwick still fly to Europe for leisure travel; the airport has yet to feel the impact of Brexit.

The coronavirus pandemic has forced airlines to cut up to 90% of their capacity with Gatwick estimating that they are back to 1971 traffic levels. The estimated losses are colossal. Time and again, the instability of Gatwick has ramifications for service industries, resulting in shock waves well outside the immediate Gatwick catchment area.

No one knows how long travel will be restricted for – and it’s therefore extremely hard to predict what is needed to keep companies afloat, not to mention the differing opinions over which should be helped. There are also serious questions as to how the climate crisis can, or should, figure in any airline and airport bailouts. With Airbus and Rolls Royce drawing a line under electric planes, the future for fossil-fuel-free planes still seems only a theory 1. Alternative fuel is also expensive and demanded by other industries that can reduce the everyday carbon footprint of households so can these fuels also meet the huge demands of aviation?

For local authorities to place long term strategy plans in one basket – Gatwick’s basket, must be seen as not a green strategy. As although Gatwick declares itself green, it does this because it purchases reusable power and has water fountains but omits to mention the incinerator and the fossil fuel burning planes, over 285,000 in 2019. Gatwick Airport, pre-lockdown (without using its emergency runway), expected to be served by 297,000 aircraft movements annually by 2050, generating 2.7MtCO2. With two runways this would add nearly 1MtCO2 to this figure. It is also dependent on delivery of a large number of modelling assumptions including the application of a carbon price that reaches £221 per tCO2 by 2050.

Gatwick is not only reliant upon consumer spend and confidence but caters for a luxury industry (70% of UK flights are made by a wealthy ABC1 15% of the population, with 57% not flying abroad at all ^[i]).

With so many job losses at Gatwick we have to encourage government and local authorities look to greener forms of industry to bring sustainable economic benefits to country. Both the West Sussex and Surrey County Council climate change strategies ignore the pollution created by Gatwick focusing purely on the economic benefits which once again are now questionable.

Gatwick had already planned job losses prior to lockdown. The issue with the promise of a plethora of airport jobs is the ongoing efficiency drive in the industry, driven by processes like automation. Many low skilled positions on zero-hour contracts will disappear anyway so we need to retrain in sustainable greener forms of industry instead of supporting a pollutant. Job creation is always an airports argument, but the economic value of these jobs could actually be wiped out by the cost of the associated carbon emissions assuming the jobs will ever be created.

Taxation must be connected to emissions; the CAGNE response to the recent government consultation on Taxation of Carbon Emissions argued that Air Passenger Duty must remain, green taxes must be paid as well as VAT and Duty which aviation is exempt from. There needs to be a level playing field where aviation no longer receives such subsidies. Investment needs to go into green forms of transport and so we are delighted to see the first hydrogen trains and buses being trialed.

Even after much lobbying by aviation and the travel industry the government announced (30^th September 2020*) that Air Passenger Duty (APD) will rise for economy and premium carriage on medium and long-haul flights from April next year by 2.5%. The duty on economy fares goes from £80 to £82, while the tax on premium seats is to jump by 2.3 per cent from £176 to £180. Domestic flights and short haul are not included.

Airlines can also expect to see increases in costs of air traffic control as they seek to recoup loss in revenue during Covid, with some airlines stating that they have only 6.3 months** of cash available and may not see next summer whilst some regional airports face bankruptcy.

The government’s climate assembly (September 2020) report is supporting holidaying in the UK to reduce climate change. They have put forward the scrapping of incentives to make people fly more such as air miles, add a frequent flier tax, even out the cost of air travel compared to alternatives, promote and incentivise UK holidays and rejected air passenger numbers would rise by as much as 65% between 2018 and 2050 labelling it as counterproductive.

Talk of expansion/ growth not only blights the communities of Sussex, Surrey and Kent with the threat of 50,000 extra planes a year on top of the 285,000, but also aircraft are not green, and do not look to be green any time soon, carbon trading is a marketing myth, and so until Gatwick can properly reduce the carbon they produce growth must be stopped.

We ask you to join CAGNE, request of elected members that Gatwick Airport owners stop the plans for growth, to rebuild the emergency runway through the planning process (Development Consent Order) as a 2^ndrunway.

Just like the mining industries we need to look to a wide spread of industries that are not linked to such a volatile and luxury industry to benefit all and the planet.