Airports tend to look a long way into the future when they are considering the idea of expansion in any way, shape or form. Even when building plans are approved it can take years for the final improvements to be unveiled and used by the general public.
In the North West of the country, Manchester Airport has plans to expand and improve its current services in many ways over the next twenty years. But as with all types of expansion, when it comes to airports there are always going to be groups who back the plans – and ones which don’t.
Flying Matters is a lobbying group which focuses on giving people a wealth of information about flying and how it can benefit them. Their main point is that as the airline industry develops, so do many other industries around them.
And the organisation has now put a campaign into place that will help promote the reasons why we should be more open to the expansion of airports in the near future. Stories about this campaign started to filter through onto the web during the middle of January.
At the moment it is clear that the economic troubles we find ourselves in are having as much of an effect on the airline industry as they are elsewhere. People are shunning the more expensive flights and airlines in favour of cheaper methods of travel, and cheaper flights. It’s very much a case of battening down the hatches and getting through the current downturn as quickly and easily as possible.
According to Flying Matters, the industry provides some half a million jobs at the moment. And the idea is that the proposed expansion at Manchester Airport and also some other locations will provide even more jobs in the future.
This is a stirring argument in favour of flying and using airports more often. It provides the flip side of the argument we see more often, which is the fact that flying damages the environment. According to the anti-flying campaigners we can all expect to be breathing in more pollutants in the future if these expansion plans go ahead.
In the end we can see that there are pros and cons to every situation. Do we opt for expanding the industry, expanding the facilities and capacity of Manchester Airport, so we can enjoy more jobs and more money coming into the area from tourism? Or do we save ourselves and prevent more pollution from happening?
In a way it is very much a case of weighing up the long term and short term benefits of each argument. Perhaps the most appealing thing about Flying Matters is that they promote their beliefs in a very orderly way. Their website is well structured and it imparts their message without shouting it at you.
But whichever side of the fence you are on, it seems almost inevitable that Manchester Airport – along with many others – will indeed be expanded in the near future.