TITLE:
Access to Small Airports and the Impact on Regional Growth in the UK
AUTHORS:
Emma Ralphs, Sina Shahab, Negar Ahmadpoor
KEYWORDS:
Small Airport, Accessibility, Growth, Regional Development
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.8 No.1,
February
18,
2020
ABSTRACT: This paper focuses on how the accessibility of small airports affects the
regional growth in the UK. Three airports that have less than two million
passengers annually, are used for this study: Bournemouth, Cardiff
International and London Southend Airport. The purpose of this study is
threefold: 1) to investigate how the size of an airport influences growth and
provides planning authorities support for permitting development around the
airport, 2) to examine the impact that improving accessibility has on smaller
airports, and 3) to analyse how regional development plans consider airports
when airport developments occur. To this end, secondary data was used to
analyse the current growth patterns linking economic indicators to airport use.
Evaluating the accessibility of each small airport with the transport network
by using a variety of databases and navigation software. Overall conclusions of
this study show that the size of an airport is not as significant as the
stability of the airports growth in influencing economic growth. Accessibility
was found to improve regional growth around the airport and that the road
network provided the best access due to the location of the case-study
airports. Regional development plans considered airports as a gateway to drive
economic growth with specific industries being supported. However, there is
concern around airports for their development into greenbelts due to
“exceptional circumstances” by the National Planning Policy Framework.
Provision of independent development plans related solely to airports reduces
the decision duration by local authorities.