The government has published a white paper, The Future of Air Transport, outlining the development of the UK's airports over the next 30 years.

The paper itself does not permit or deny any particular development but provides a framework on which future plans can be made.

Of the UK's principal airports, the Department of Transport supports the construction of a second runway at Stansted as soon as possible – around 2011/2012 – to be followed by a new runway at Heathrow as soon as possible after that.

Options for two new runways at Gatwick and a second at Luton are not supported, although the report considers that land should be safeguarded at the former both on its own merits and in case conditions attached to the construction of a new Heathrow runway cannot be met.

Proposals for new runways at Edinburgh and Birmingham are supported but a second runway at East Midlands is not.

Elsewhere, neither the development of a new central Scotland airport nor a new airport to the east of Newport in south Wales are considered to be worth taking forward. Details: www.dft.gov.uk