Residents release smoke flares at airport that serves wealthy travelers' private jets: 'Unacceptable'
A new proposal for airport expansion in Hampshire, England, is being met with significant protests.
The BBC reported that in response to Farnborough Airport recently submitting plans to increase its annual flight limit from 50,000 to 70,000 planes yearly, organizers from environmental advocacy groups such as Extinction Rebellion, Farnborough Noise, and Blackwater Valley Friends of the Earth blocked the airport's front entrance in response, releasing smoke flares into the air and holding signs in protest.
When asked for comment, Steve Williams, the environment lead for Waverley Borough Council, said, "Aviation has no realistic prospect of becoming sustainable in the near future, so any form of airport expansion is unacceptable, given the climate crisis."
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One of the groups' specific issues with these expansion plans is how they plan to increase the number of private flights leaving Farnborough every year. Private planes are infamously large producers of carbon dioxide, a fact that has attracted significant attention in recent years as tracking data surrounding various celebrity private planes has become more publicized, and private jet usage has increased.
In a statement related to the protests, Extinction Rebellion stated that "The 33,120 private flights to and from Farnborough Airport last year carried an average of just 2.5 passengers per flight, with each passenger responsible for the emission of nine times as much carbon as an economy flight to the US and 20 times that to Spain. Currently 40% of flights to and from the airport are empty."
It summed up, stating, "For the limited benefit it provides to a small number of people, private aviation has a disproportionately large impact on climate change due to its high carbon emissions."
Rushmoor Borough Council has yet to make a decision on the proposed increase in flights, but it is in line with the British government's plans to increase economic growth through airport expansions and the use of more sustainable fuel sources. Chancellor of the Exchequer Rachel Reeves recently supported a similar initiative at London Heathrow, as well as with smaller airports in Luton and Gatwick.
If private airfare expansion is part of those plans as well, expect protests to take place at those airports soon.
As one protestor put it succinctly, "[It's] unacceptable that a tiny number of very wealthy people award themselves the right to fly in private jets, emitting huge amounts of carbon."
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