Estimated number of jobs created by expansion cut by 50%
London City Airport has admitted that it over-estimated the number of jobs which would be created by the proposed expansion of the airport by 50%. In a letter to local MP Stephen Timms, seen by the pressure group Fight the Flights, Newham Council reveals that the Airport now acknowledges that there will only be 480 new jobs.
A letter says that “The Airport itself now accepts that the application was lodged before the current economic downturn, bringing with it a downturn in demand for air travel, and that additional employment to the extent shown in the original application is unlikely now to be realised by 2010.”
Newham Council recently gave London City Airport permission to increase the number of flights using the airport by 50%.
A spokesperson from Fight the Flights, said, “Newham Council has always argued it favoured expansion because of the number of jobs it would create. Now we discover it is no more than work in a big superstore. Yet, the extra noise caused by the planes will bring misery to tens of thousands.”
ENDS
For further information:
Press Release dated: 24 August 2009
