Civil Aviation bill passed – opportunity to address environment ignored

21st December, 2012

The Civil Aviation Act became law on 20th Dec. The Act could have been used to address some of the environmental impacts of aviation, but the government chose not to use the opportunity.

The only mention of the environment in the statement by Aviation Minister Simon Burns is: “providing the CAA with a new role to promote better public information about the environmental effects of aviation and measures taken to mitigate adverse effects.” Promoting public information is, of course, quite different from taking action.