Southampton Airport Expansion Coursework
Southampton Airport is the 20th largest Airport in the United Kingdom, located in the borough of Eastleigh, Hampshire, England. The Airport is near the M27 so has easy access, the airport is also adjacent to a nature reserve park called Itchen Valley Country Park and is also near to Princess Anne Hospital and Southampton General Hospital. The airport also has railway transport to arrive at Southampton Airport, the Swathling station can be found just down the road but there is a Southampton Airport station right outside the Airport.
The airport’s runway is reputed to be built over the remains of a Roman villa.
According to local history author John Edgar Mann’s Book of the Stonehams the site’s connection with aviation can be traced back to 1910 when pioneer pilot Eric Moon used the meadows belonging to North Stoneham Farm as a take-off and landing spot for his monoplane, Moonbeam Mk II.
Over time Southampton Airport has drastically improved, in the 1960’s Mr J. N. Somers bought the airport and a 1723 meters long runway was built. Almost 300,000 passengers passed through the airport within the first year of the new runway being built, these numbers then dropped during the 1970 recession, however a new air traffic control tower was still built. In 1988 panning permission was applied for to redevelop the whole airport and construct two business parks. BAA plc purchased the site in 1990 and announced that they would be investing £27 million in developing the airport. Planning permission was granted in 1993 and work began. The new Southampton Airport’ was opened in 1994 by HRH the Duke of York. Within a couple of years a record number of 560,000 passengers passed through the airport and 1997 saw 631,000 passengers using the airport for many new destinations. Today Southampton is one of Europe’s most modern regional airports and over 1 million passengers pass through the airport each year flying to 33 different destinations.
Southampton has many parks and green spaces, covering over 1,100 hectares. Numerous free events, concerts, walks, talks and tasks take place across the city for residents and visitors to get involved in throughout the year. As well as the Green Flag award winning Central Parks, Mayfield Park and the Common, there are around 50 other recognised green open spaces. These all vary in size and nature and include commons, nature reserves, greenways and recreation grounds with activities like pitch and putt. These make up a green belt around Southampton
The airport’s plan for expansion is either scenario 1 or scenario 2.
Scenario one includes expanding the current terminal adding more aprons, cargo areas, ancillary, transport surfaces and a commercial area.
Scenario two includes adding another terminal, ancillary, cargo areas, transport facilities, aprons, maintenance and a commercial area.
Many people have different opinions on the idea of expanding Southampton airport; these people are locally and globally. There are many reasons for expanding Southampton but also many reasons against expansion of the Southampton airport.
Many people would share these views, the people’s opinions that are being used are just examples and many people will agree or disagree with these views.
Some local residents are against the expansion of Southampton Airport as some believe that ‘the huge expansion planned is too big for this small airport’, also some local residents have paid a lot of money for double glazing too reduce the noise, Tony and Sylvia Percy paid £5000 to reduce the noise from the aeroplanes. Several neighbouring occupants are concerned about the pollution the airport will emit.
However various people that neighbour the airport have a different viewpoint on the expansion of Southampton Airport, some say they believe that the benefits outweigh the problems. College students and local unemployed people will have the opportunity for localised jobs; some also think that a bigger and better airport will ‘put Southampton back on the map’.
Global people also have different views on the expansion planned. Most of these are large organisations that will gain more income from the expansion. BAA, Flybe and Premier Travel Inn, all suggest that the expansion is a good idea and that it should go ahead.
Nevertheless there are global organisations that are against the expansion and think it’s a bad idea and should therefore be withdrawn. Most of these are organisations work to improve the atmosphere and think the noise and other various pollutions that will be emitted by the increased planes will increase and contribute to global warming.