Up to a quarter
of international business travellers from the UK are having to use a non-UK air
hub because of lack of capacity in the South East’s airports, according to the Guild of Travel Management Companies (GTMC).
The GTMC has
long lobbied government on the urgent need for additional air capacity in the
South East, and responded to the recent publication of the Davies Airports
Commission interim report with a statement from its Chief Executive Paul Wait.
“The reality of
a lack of capacity is already being felt by the business traveller,” said Wait.
“There are a host of destinations that those travelling to do the deals that
will underpin economic growth cannot access directly, or frequently enough and
we need an immediate increase in capacity at Heathrow to enable this.”
A recent GTMC
survey of more than a thousand frequent international business travellers in
the South East showed that 25 per cent already have to fly via a rival European
hub to reach the destinations they wish to do business in.
Wait said his
members did support the Commission’s proposal for an increase in landings in
the 5.00 – 5.59am window and the recommendations for improved suce transport
connections.
“Having a world
leading hub airport is critical for the UK’s role as a global business centre,”
he added. “While we support the options set out by the Commission we are united
with other business representatives in regretting that we will still have to
wait another 18 months before the final report is received and then an unknown
amount of time before the Government of the day allows the favoured project to
proceed. Meanwhile, our business travellers continue to have to travel via rival
hubs in Europe or the Middle East to get to destinations – particularly those
in emerging markets in Asia and South America.”
Responding to
the Airports Commission report, Saad Hammad, Flybe’s Chief Executive called for
aviation policy to change to serve the needs of the whole economy and all
regions.
“Extra investment
in capacity around London should be for the whole country, not just for
London,” he said. “The government should mandate reserved slots in London
airports to serve the regions at an affordable cost so that the regions too can
benefit from hub connections to London and onwards to the rest of the world.
“In our
submission to the Commission, we pointed out that only six UK cities (Aberdeen,
Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester and Newcastle) currently have access to
Heathrow, compared to 20 regional UK cities in 1990. We are disappointed that
Sir Howard seems not to have addressed the crucial issue of regional
connectivity to any new national hub near the capital.”
Hammad claimed
the regions risked being crowded out by more profitable international flights.
“We risk having a London hub only for the South East of England and transiting
international passengers, with people outside London increasingly having to use
Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam as their hub to access the rest of the world.”
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