London Stansted Airport’s new chief executive officer, Ken O’Toole has called on the UK Government to set out a vision to unlock spare airport capacity.
He urges a national aviation strategy that not only supports airports to grow, but ensures the spare capacity available today is used to generate the biggest positive impact for consumers and the economy.
O’Toole was speaking at the London Infrastructure Summit, where he also said a lot more can be done to improve the UK’s connectivity with the rest of the world to help it succeeds as an outward-facing trading nation as it prepares to leave the European Union and at a time when airport capacity is at a premium.
He added: “The UK is going to need the aviation industry to be at the top of its game over the next 10-15 years to build a prosperous and global Britain. First and foremost, we need to ensure that we make the most productive and efficient use of the capacity we have already.
“We will shortly be applying to raise our planning cap so that we can make full use of our runway. Securing that approval would enable Stansted to meet 50 per cent of London’s expected passenger growth over the next decade, double our economic output to £2 billion and create thousands of new jobs.”
O’Toole says Stansted offers the “primary growth opportunity” in the south over the next 15 years and businesses and passengers will reap the benefits with increased global connectivity, trade opportunities and more choice.
