Airport News
Airport expansion 'will destroy jobs'
Wed, 11 Mar, 2009
Expanding airports in the west country will destroy thousands of jobs in the region, it has been claimed.
Campaigners protesting against the expansion said that by 2030, more than 64,000 jobs could be lost and cited research by the Aviation Environment Federation.
The study found that as more people decide to spend money abroad thanks to inexpensive air travel, jobs could be lost in the region.
The Western Morning News reported rejections of the claims by business figures.
According to Tim Jones, who chairs the Devon and Cornwall Business Council, airports in the area are "an excellent shop window" to bring in new business and create jobs.
He "completely rejected" the report.
Among its findings was the claim that in 2005, the difference between what air travellers spent abroad and what they spent in the regions was more than £1 billion.
Jamie Christon of Exeter International Airport said that the airport drove tourism and that some figures were ten years out of date.
Bristol Airport told the Bristol Evening Post that "fanciful economics" had been used to come to "misleading and inaccurate conclusions".