Environmental protesters campaigned for a ban on domestic flights with a protest that started at London City Airport before taking a bus and train to continue at Manchester Airport. London, UK. 04/09/2010
Aviation continues to be the fastest growing source of greenhouse gases in the UK, and the protest was designed to stress that there are alternatives to domestic flights - including the 38 daily between London and Manchester.
Getting to London City Airport proved a problem for some, with several key underground lines and the eastern section of the DLR closed for maintenance. Fortunately the organisers, the Campaign Against Climate Change, had hired an open-top bus for the protest and it brought some of us from the nearest open station to the airport, where others, including some from the local campaigning group against its expansion, Fight the Flights, were waiting for us.
Speakers at the protest outside the airport entrance included Phil Thornhill, the co-ordinator of the Campaign against Climate Change, Anne-Marie Griffin, chair of Fight the Flights, John Stewart, Chair of AirportWatch and HACAN, Darren Johnson, Green Party GLA member, Murad Qureshi, Labour GLA member and Joss from Plane Stupid.
Speakers stressed the threat caused by greenhouse gases to global climate and the need for a ban on domestic flights as an unnecessary contribution to climate change. These flights are wasteful and often slower than less polluting rail or even road travel. Climate change is already impacting disproportionately on poor people in poorer countries, and one banner read 'Polluting the Poor For Profit.'
Airport expansion also threatens peoples' homes and blights local communities with noise and environmental pollution. London City Airport was granted planning permission on the basis it would only have a small number of flights by low-noise turbo-prop planes designed for short take-off and landing. They now plan to increase the number of flights to 176,000 a year and are using much noisier jet aircraft for over 90% of flights.
At the end of the meeting at London City Airport, many of the protesters boarded the open-top bus for a tour through London to catch the train from Euston to Manchester Airport. As the bus passed through busy streets, shoppers and tourists were treated to a mermaid and a man with a megaphone, joined by a bus-load of people chanting for 'Trains Not Planes' and a ban on domestic flights.
