15
November
2017
|
17:06
Europe/Amsterdam

Shadow Transport team visits London Stansted Airport to hear about growth plans and transformation

London Stansted today welcomed the Shadow Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald MP, and Shadow Aviation Minister, Karl Turner MP, to see how the airport is planning to make best use of its existing runway capacity and improve the UK’s global connectivity over the next decade.

The Labour transport team were briefed on the strong case for cutting journey times and improving reliability on rail services between London Liverpool Street and Stansted Airport to help unlock the airport’s spare capacity.

They were also shown Stansted’s new employment plans through its MAG Connect initiative, designed to support the airport’s growth and create job opportunities in areas where there is higher unemployment. As part of this work Stansted runs job fairs in Tottenham and has launched a permanent presence in Tottenham Job Centre Plus.

We were delighted the Shadow Transport team was able to join us at Stansted today and discuss our plans for growing passenger numbers, our £600 million investment programme to transform the airport and our ambitions for a more reliable and faster rail service.

Stansted can make a huge contribution to improving the UK’s connectivity with the rest of the world over the next decade, this will be vital as the country prepares to leave the EU and at a time when airport capacity is at a premium.
Brad Miller, London Stansted's Chief Operating Officer
Following the decision to leave the EU, supporting UK aviation has become more, not less critical if the UK is to remain a global, outward-looking trading nation. Improving surface access to and utilising capacity of airports like Stansted is an important part of delivering an aviation strategy that will support our economy
Shadow Transport Secretary, Andy McDonald MP
The national conversation on aviation centres on the issue of building a third runway at Heathrow but we face capacity challenges here and now.  More needs to be done to support connectivity into and out of our other international gateway airports across the UK to unlock existing unused capacity, and develop the huge potential they have
Shadow Aviation Minister, Karl Turner MP