[Avionics Today 02-04-2015] The United Kingdom’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is calling on the aviation industry and decision-makers to be much more ambitious in confronting aviation’s environmental challenges — including improving compensation for communities — or else face the prospect that essential additional runway capacity may never be built.


In its response to the Airports Commission’s final consultation, the CAA has stated that local communities must not be expected to simply suffer the consequences of airport expansion. It calls on aviation industry and government stakeholders involved in delivering the new runway to do much more to ensure communities can be confident that disturbance is minimized. Communities must also be fully engaged in the expansion process and fairly compensated for the disturbance they experience.


Without improved action to tackle aviation’s environmental impacts and more support for the communities that are affected, the CAA believes it is unlikely that any of the shortlisted schemes will ever come to fruition — leading to passengers facing higher charges, lower service standards and fewer routes to choose from. 


“This is now key to this debate, as communities cannot be expected to put up with airport expansion without much better engagement and compensation and more of a say in a development that will have a major impact on their local area,” said Andrew Haines, chief executive of the CAA. “It’s hard to see how the additional runway capacity that will benefit consumers and industry for generations to come will ever be built unless this issue is comprehensively tackled.”