Airport 'must grow or die'
23.06.08
Council leaders need to concern themselves less with carbon footprints and more with effective planning to ensure that Manchester Airport becomes the focal point for growth in the region, Crain's quotes an international expert as saying.
Dr John Kasarda, said in a recent speech in the city as part of the Innovation Manchester initiative, said council leaders needed to prioritise airport growth over environmental concerns. He said: ‘People who talk about putting caps on passenger numbers are also putting caps on Manchester. On your ability to compete, to raise income levels and to attract companies from around the world'.
Dr Kasarda, a director of the University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler Business School and a leading exponent of the aerotropolis theory of airport-based city growth, added: ‘Stability is not an option either for passengers or cargo. You either grow or die.’
His comments have special significance for Manchester Airport, where passenger numbers have been flat at 22 million for the past two years, whilst other airports have grown and Stansted has overtaken it to become the UK's third largest airport.
However, Dr Kasarda said Manchester Airport's public ownership model meant that it possessed a unique opportunity to develop ‘both inside and outside the fence’, as long as it was not sidetracked by promises to reduce carbon levels.
He said: ‘You can go back to the Stone Age and reduce your carbon footprint to zero, but I don't know of any city that has ever shrunk to greatness. There has to be a balance.’
Dr Kasarda argued that half of the emissions around airports are caused by standing traffic and the best way to reduce it is to better organise land use so that businesses that use the airport most are located nearby, together with a dramatic increase in road and rail capacity.
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