Expansion not key to airport traffic boost

Europe's busiest airports could carry 28 million more passengers every year without further expansion or extra runways, a report has claimed.

The study, ordered by the European Commission, says that more efficient use of take-off and landing slots could absorb some of the current congestion.

Demand already exceeds capacity at most or all of the day at six European airports - Heathrow, Gatwick, Paris Orly, Milan Linate, Dusseldorf and Frankfurt.

While some major European airports are planning to expand and may be able to cope with the increase, others, including Heathrow, do not plan expansion and face worsening "capacity constraints", the report has warned.

There are currently 26,000 flights using Europe's airspace every day, with estimated growth of 5 per cent a year.

Better planning and use of slots alone could generate more than 4.3 billion in economic benefits by 2025, the report estimates - adding up to 28 million passengers without any other modifications to airport capacity.

The European Union transport commissioner, Siim Kallas, said: "We have been concerned that the current system of allocating take-off and landing slots at airports is inefficient, giving rise to delays and congestion.

"This has now been confirmed by today's report, showing that up to 28 million more passengers could travel each year through Europe's airports."

The commissioner said that he intended to propose legislation later this year to tackle the issue.

The study, drawn up by an independent transport planning consultancy, says problems with the current slot allocation arrangements at Europe's airports not only causes congestion but also hinders competition between airlines.