Jenny Jones will question London’s Mayor on Wednesday about the case for providing more airport capacity in and around London, in the light of new figures showing that a significant proportion of passengers at Heathrow only use the airport to transfer between international flights, with little or no economic benefit to the UK.
Analysis of figures from the Civil Aviation Authority shows that of the 67 million passengers using Heathrow in 2007, around 18 million (over 26%) were international transfer passengers.
"It is clear today that over a quarter of all passengers using Heathrow only bring pollution and noise to London. Instead of expanding the Airport, or worse still building an even bigger
replacement in the Thames Estuary, the Mayor and Government should work together to end all international transfers at airports in and around the capital.
"Without international transfer passengers, there is no economic argument for airport expansion in the region."