Lord Macdonald will ask today for views on how to ensure that the future development of aviation is sustainable in the face of a forecast passenger growth of over four per cent a year. He will launch the Government's Air Transport Consultation Document , the important first step in developing a 30 year strategy for the aviation industry. This strategy will eventually be set out in a new White Paper on air transport. Over the last 50 years there has been a dramatic increase in the amount of air travel across the world.
Many people fly on holiday or to visit friends and family.
Good air links are also essential to businesses to enable them to compete in today's global economy. The UK has always been at the forefront of aviation. Our forecasts show that demand may almost double over the next 15 years. Yet some of our major airports are already close to the limits of their current capacity and expansion of airports almost always has significant environmental impacts. Growth in aviation is also likely to result in an increase in emissions that contribute to climate change.