Archived press release

BAA's HEATHROW 'PROMISES' ARE WORTHLESS PR STUNT

11 March 1999

Friday 12th March 1999, 11 am
BAA plc Wilton Place office, Victoria, SW1

Friends of the Earth will be available outside the event for comment

Just days before Britain's longest public inquiry ends, BAA plc will indulge in a PR stunt by announcing (Friday 12th March) a list of "concessions" to help secure approval for its scheme to double the size and operations of Heathrow with a fifth terminal (T5).

The concessions are unlikely to properly address the real issues - the size and daily impact of Heathrow on London and the South East and the constant push for airport expansion by the air travel industry.

Friends of the Earth also questions why these promises and concessions are not being dealt with in the proper place - the T5 public inquiry.

Commenting, Nic Ferriday of Friends of the Earth's T5 campaign said:

"These concessions are likely to be too little, too late. For four years, BAA have whinged about the length of the T5 public inquiry forgetting that they caused the delays. Now they are indulging in PR stunts, announcing 'concessions' that should be dealt with at the inquiry. This confirms that BAA have treated the public inquiry as an expensive sideline while Sir John Egan, Bob Ayling and Des Wilson's public relations machine do the real business in cosy chats with Ministers.

"Any major concessions that genuinely reduce or reverse the appalling social and environmental impact of Heathrow and air travel are welcome. But the bottom line is that BAA, British Airways and their T5-obsessed supporters, in and out of Government, have no intention of moderating the growth in air travel and airport expansion. That is what is needed to reverse the local impacts which make people's lives intolerable, and to start reducing the global effects of the unaccountable air travel industry."

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Published by Friends of the Earth Trust