Another airport expansion setback

Growth in the London market could be further constrained by a local government decision this week to block a proposed increase in traffic at Stansted airport.
Uttlesford District Council has rejected a proposal from British Airports Authority (BAA) to increase a cap at Stansted from 25 to 35 million passengers annually. Low-cost carriers, which generate the majority of traffic at Stansted led by Ryanair and easyJet, will now have to try and find another London area airport to handle their growth.
But channelling growth to another airport will be difficult given similar local opposition to expand Luton, another London satellite airport popular with low-cost carriers. London's two close-in airports, Heathrow and City, are completely off limits to low-cost carriers because of slot constraints while Gatwick, which is used by easyJet and to a much lesser extent Ryanair, is also nearly at capacity.
Luton and Stansted both only have one runway and plans to expand operations on their single runways - yet alone add a second runway - face stiff opposition from community groups. Opposition to BAA's proposal to increase the cap at Stansted was led by the group Stop Stansted Expansion (SSE), which claims: "BAA's plans would have had an appalling impact on this predominately rural area as well as generating the equivalent of an additional five million tonnes a year of carbon dioxide emissions at a time when tackling climate change is the most pressing issue facing the world today."
Indeed increasing environmental challenges are now dominating the agenda of major airline industry trade groups in Europe and have become a huge barrier to airport expansion in the region. Airports Council International Europe (ACI-Europe) is warning of a looming capacity crunch and is concerned continued setbacks and long delays in securing approval for airport expansion or new airport projects will impede growth from next decade. Environmental issues and opposition from local communities, which seem to often fail to recognise the important role airports play to local economies, are by far the largest causes to such delays.
The airlines are not exactly helping the cause by opposing several airport expansion projects, on the grounds they will have to pay for them through higher user fees. EasyJet and Ryanair have led opposition to BAA's plan to build a new terminal at Stansted, although this plan along with a proposed second runway is separate than the more short-term proposal to increase the annual passenger cap to 35 million using the existing infrastructure. IATA also has been an opponent to BAA's long-term Stansted expansion plan and is concerned the project could be partly covered through cross subsidies from other BAA airports.
BAA's new owner Ferrovial will likely be encouraged by the UK government to sell off some of its airports following the conclusion at the end of this year of a review by the UK's Office of Fair Trading. Ferrovial could find it more difficult to fetch a good price for Stansted if Ullesford's decision, which will likely be appealed by BAA, is upheld. And if the airport is sold, its users will almost certainly ask for the new owners to guarantee a reduction in user fees, making it impossible to fund any major expansion should in the unlikely event it receive government approval.
The combination of all this increasingly bitter opposition from a wide section of groups could just lead to a standstill with no airport upgrade projects going forward anywhere in Europe. There are already huge capacity constraints in London, Dublin, Frankfurt and several other European cities. If this problem spreads to more cities it will not be good for anyone involved in this industry.