New Civil Engineer - Catherine Moore
Airport expansions have been firmly on the back burner in recent years, with climate considerations and the pandemic-driven fall in passenger numbers creating rising uncertainty.
However projects including capacity increases at London City, Manston and Southampton airports have moved forward in the past year - so could 2023 see expansion plans back on the agenda?
According to New Economics Foundation senior researcher Alex Chapman, "we can expect to see airports continuing to push hard for permission to expand over the next year or two".
However Chapman said that "the reality is that aviation does not have an adequate short-to-medium-term solution to its colossal climate impact" and "it is only a matter of time before a more responsible government takes action to curtail the growth in flight departures which is doing such damage to our planet".
