I noted an article in the paper described a unanimous support against expansion of the airport movements and operating hours. 

While that may be true at the Farnham meeting, I was at Farnborough College on the Saturday and I for one completely agree with the expansion plans.  

Our country is in debt to the tune of £2.7 trillion, or 100 per cent of GDP. 

Ordinary people seem completely unaware of our plight with a very expensive war in Ukraine continuing, little to no economic growth, a declining NHS, increasing defence budget, low inward investment, pressure on pensions, a soaring bill for asylum seekers (£3bn), high inflation reducing the purchasing power of the pound, increasing political, economic and military threats from China... frankly, the list goes on quite a bit.  

In most parts of the world, the opportunity to increase prosperity is welcomed with open arms, but here at the home of British aviation, we self-harm with our current narrative. 

Having lived in different countries in the Far East and Middle East, what will happen is that they will prosper, and we will be in terminal decline, and it will be entirely our own fault. 

I worked for Emirates in Dubai and know how important air services are.  

Dubai was a village and now 30 years later DXB is bigger than LHR. We just sat back and let a village in the desert take our market share.  

Now they have loads of billionaires living there with a high standard of living.

I also worked for Falcon Aviation at Al Bateen executive airport in Abu Dhabi until 2020. Once again, the prosperity afforded by the airport is welcome and significant to the local economy. 

With our citizens opposing expansion, they are depriving people of work, therefore not adding tax to the treasury, which is woefully needed and handing on a plate a bigger slice of the prosperity pie to others. 

This is incredibly short sighted and if you don’t take opportunities when they are given to you, I fear Farnborough airport will be in a slow decline, a death by a thousand cuts.  

Aviation margins are incredibly small, the difference between success and failure slight. 

I helped start Zoom airlines in 2007 and we employed more than 200 people before we went bust in August 2008. We will rue the day we didn’t seize the opportunity to expand Farnborough airport.  

The argument on CO2 is useless, as any slack in aviation will be taken up by a more enterprising airport able to take advantage of a slower, less nimble competitor.  

For information, I was also director of quality of Bahrain International Airport. 

As the traffic increases on the A331 near my house, I don’t get consulted. If we get more trains on the network, I don’t get consulted.  

Why do we need local consultation and, by insinuation, approval for a relatively minor increase in movements and curfew? 

If you don’t like aircraft, don’t live near an airport. If you don’t like trains, don’t live next to railway tracks. If you don’t like loud music from a pub beer garden, don’t live near a pub. I’m sure you get my point.  

It’s common sense, of course, that even a child can comprehend. After all, the airport has been there since 1908, so it’s people that arrived afterwards, not the other way round. I wonder if it’s a case of selfish nimbyism!

I could write a book on this subject but I think I’ll stop here. 

Not everyone is against airport expansion. 

By Andrew Gardner

Farnborough