Airport growth

SIR, — Your report (Herts Advertiser, February 21) of Luton Airport having exceeded 10 million commercial passengers per annum in addition to business jet and cargo traffic, illustrates how the small print in the 1998 planning consent under which it op

SIR, - Your report (Herts Advertiser, February 21) of Luton Airport having exceeded 10 million commercial passengers per annum in addition to business jet and cargo traffic, illustrates how the "small print" in the 1998 planning consent under which it operates has been used to exceed what was intended - an increase from the then 2.5-million passengers per annum to five million. So we're already at twice that and one wonders what, if any, constraint that consent will have in future on its continuing stealth expansion.

Meanwhile the area badly affected by night noise from Luton has spread outwards by a further 50 per cent over just the last four years and the recent flight-path proposal maps include tables showing a presumed steady increase of air traffic, both day and night, on most routes by around a half by 2014.

Interestingly the latter is at the behest of a Government allegedly, and rightly, concerned about climate change and yet aviation's current UK climate impact is already around 13 per cent of the UK total - and rising.

JOHN DAVIS,

LADACAN (Luton and District Association for the Control of Aircraft Noise).