To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make a statement on the impact of the inclusion of Gatwick Airport in the Government's consultation exercise on the (a) scope and (b) validity of proposals at other regional airports. [98275]
The forecasts for regional airports outside the South East and East of England, set out in the consultation documents published on 23 July 2002, were based on a range of policy scenarios which made alternative assumptions about the total quantum of capacity in the South East airports system. Our modelling suggests that the exact location of that capacity would have only a marginal impact on prospective demand at regional airports and would, therefore, not significantly affect the validity of the proposals for those airports.The consultation remains open in all regions and will continue to do so until four months after the revised South East consultation document is published. We will continue to welcome comments on the proposals in those documents and any serious worked up alternatives until the consultation is finally concluded.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will allow a period of two months between the issue of his response to the consultation process on the future development of air transport in the United Kingdom and the publication of the White Paper. [98276]
We shall publish the Government's conclusions in a White Paper later this year.We also intend to publish a summary of the responses to the consultation. However, in view of the very large number of responses we have received, and the need to check that the summary of them is accurate and complete, we cannot give any undertakings about how soon we could publish the summary.