Dear Mr. Branson,

I hope you will not mind me contacting you personally but I am aware of your tremendous commitment to the UK (indeed, world) aviation industry and I therefore wondered if I might ask your advice and help.

As you know, the Government’s 2003 White Paper on aviation is due for review this year. I reassured to know that both the Government and yourself place great priority on expanding our air traffic capacity over the coming years in order to maintain UK competitiveness and economic growth. I am concerned, however, that, despite the best efforts of ministers and the PR machine of the aviation industry, coverage given so far to this issue is not winning the hearts and minds of the general public in the face of massive publicity regarding global warming. Surprisingly, there do not appear to be any consumer-based campaigns in favour of airport expansion, which seems inexplicable given the fact that market forces will ensure that the ‘man in the street’ will be the main beneficiary of any such expansion. I am therefore establishing a group in order to campaign on this issue as a counterbalance to the many unhelpful but nevertheless influential campaigns that are arguing for a curtailment of airport - and air traffic - expansion.

I attach a draft summary of the key points in support of the case for more air traffic. Whilst I believe there are some very strong arguments (including, I think, some which Government ministers have failed to identify), I nevertheless find myself doubting whether the case is as convincing as it should be. In the light of your tremendous and unsurpassed reputation for using PR to benefit the consumer, I wondered if your ‘experts’ would mind reviewing my document and coming back to me with their suggestions as to how the argument could be made more plausible in order to ensure we win over all but the die-hard greens. Please do feel free incidentally to instruct your PR department to use any of my arguments in support of their position. As mentioned, I believe you will find some of them quite original.

I would be grateful for a swift response regarding the above as I am keen to launch my campaign as soon as possible. Time is of the essence here as there is a very real danger that the general public will jump on the green bandwagon of seeking to reduce carbon emissions and hence meeting our Kyoto Protocol targets by the apparently easy - but obviously ludicrous - solution of applying restrictions to air traffic growth.

I also wondered whether you personally would be interested in attending the press launch for my campaign or featuring in the literature. An endorsement from yourself would undoubtedly be massively effective in influencing public opinion on this issue. Exact dates for the launch have not yet been decided and I am able to be very flexible on this front in order to meet your needs.

Many thanks in anticipation.
I look forward to hearing from you.

Yours sincerely,

Fran Crowe

Attachment: We need more planes - KEY POINTS