A squeeze on business jets at major airports around London will put more pressure to increase flights at Farnborough Airport, industry leaders have predicted.

The proposal to reduce the number of business aviation flights at Stansted Airport by almost half means that businessmen will look elsewhere — specifically Farnborough — if they want to fly private jets into London, the industry said last week.

The warning came from directors and managers of companies involved in business and general aviation at a meeting at Farnb-orough on Friday last week.

The meeting, organised by the Conservative Party, brought out some of the key concerns of the sector, one of the largest pro-viders of jobs in the area.

With London’s main airports increasingly being run for the benefit of commercial and scheduled aircraft operators, business jets were being “forced out” of the capital, the meeting was told.

The sole exception was Farnborough Airport, which is run solely for business jets, but the 28,000 limit on take-offs and landings was a constriction that could also affect business, the industry said.

Private jet charter airlines, helicopter operators and training providers were among those represented at the meeting at TAG Farnborough Airport’s terminal building.

The meeting was billed as an opportunity for the industry to pitch its concerns to the team that is likely to take control of the government within the next two years, if opinion polls are to be believed.

As well as a lack of capacity, industry leaders raised concerns that taxes designed to reduce carbon emissions would adversely hit their profits.

Aircraft operators also said that their unique selling point, speed, would be lost unless the government committed to improve infrastructure and concessions were made on fast-tracking business executives through immigration and security cordons at airports.

Aviation professionals also warned that travel to the 2012 Olympics in London could be a national embarrassment unless more emphasis was placed on the role of business aviation in getting people to the Games.

Speaking after the meeting, the town’s Tory MP Gerald Howarth said the exclusion of business jets from major airports would inevitably cause more pressure on business airports, such as Farnborough.

He warned that any more pressure on business aviation from regulation, planning constraints or extra taxes could cost Britain’s economy, as foreign executives might choose to fly into airports in continental Europe instead.

“If there is nowhere else to go, Paris Le Bourget airport has three times the available number of movements as Farnborough,” Mr Howarth said. “There is a real concern that the government is going to cripple this business. There is a risk that we could drive out investment in the country due to taxation proposals.”

He said that concerns over planning from airport operators were understandable, considering how long the government had taken to reach a decision over an increase in the number of weekend flights at Farnborough.

He said there was no conflict of interest between his job as a representative of the people of Aldershot, Farnborough, Yateley and Blackwater, and his Tory front bench role as a shadow defence minister and member of the cross-party Parliamentary aviation group.

“My constituents expect me to talk to everybody,” he said. “We are doing what people expect us to do, which is to engage with the business community and listen to what their concerns are.

“Farnborough has 100 years of aeronautical activity. But there is no support for turning this airfield into something used for Easyjet or British Airways. It cannot and will not happen.”

Geoff Marks, chairman of the Farnborough Airfield Residents’ Association, said that any changes to the current slow planning process would be welcome.

However, he said key decisions should still be made by locally elected politicians, or the democratic accountability of government would be undermined.

“I don’t believe that central government is best placed to make sure a proper balance is struck between the growth of an airport and the disbenefits felt by the local population,” he said.

“That can only be done democratically if local and national politicians in the area feel their positions may be at risk from their decisions.”

He added that airport operators only had themselves to blame for planning delays by applying for successive extensions to their operations.