---

Civil Aviation Bill

I rise to seek the Government’s position on general aviation, particularly British general aviation, regarding noise and emissions. In doing so, I welcome the Minister to his new role; I am sure that the general aviation sector is looking forward to making direct connections with him. I fly aircraft, but they are little ones that do not make much noise or use much petrol. My Mooney M20J can travel at 190 mph and do 24 miles per gallon, which is perhaps better than the Minister’s own road vehiclecan do. Like me, the hon. Member for Aldershot(Mr. Howarth) also flies regularly. The Minister should know that we have created a loosely constituted group—the parliamentary aviation group—that focuses on the interests of general aviation and of business general aviation. It is clear to us that general aviation and business general aviation are not the significant problem in terms of noise and emissions. The Minister may already know that general aviation is a £5,000 million a year sector of the British economy and provides some 21,000 jobs. While it is therefore big in business terms, it is small in terms of the impact that we are discussing. General aviation’s total daily environmental impact is roughly the same as that of one jumbo jet in the first five hours of a transatlantic flight. Indeed, the entire fuel usage of the piston sector of general aviation is equivalent to roughly 20 minutes of usage by the road transport sector. It is also rare for general aviation, or the smaller business jets, to cause complaints about noise. While most of the large jets carry predominantly leisure passengers, most general aviation and small business jets carry business passengers, including Ministers and Opposition Members from time to time. Leaving aside the points about the amendments made by my hon. Friend the Member for Orkney and Shetland (Mr. Carmichael), I hope that the Minister will confirm that it is not the Government’s intention to create unintended consequences for the general aviation sector and the business aviation sector of aircraft that weigh less than 10 tonnes. I do not expect the Minister to spend much time on that issue, but I can inform him that the general aviation sector, which probably has not been organised or strategic enough in the past in developing links with his Department, is concerned that announcements intended to check noise and emissions from large jets actually punish the smaller aircraft that are not the problem. I hope that the Minister will also confirm that he is willing to continue to develop the relationships that his immediate predecessor was developing effectively, to ensure that general and business general aviation will be taken into consideration when legislation and amendments—such as those we are discussing—are proposed. I am happy to work with him on an informal cross-party basis to ensure strategic consideration of that important economic sector, which does not cause the environmental and noise disturbances that so vex many people living near large airports.