The government’s Airports Commission today released a consultation paper – ‘Utilising the UK’s Existing Airport Capacity’ – as part of its investigation into potential new runways in the southeast of England.
The consultation is focusing on the role that regional airports will play in the future against the backdrop of the current options focused on Heathrow, Gatwick and the Thames estuary.
“The Commission wishes to understand the long-term strategic context within which the eventual expansion option is likely to sit, and any recommendations it could usefully make to shape this context,” it says in the introduction. Responses are due by July 25.
The document says: “The outcome of the Commission’s process will be a recommendation to government to increase capacity at Gatwick, Heathrow or an inner [Thames] estuary site.
“The Commission has begun to analyse the strategic case for each of these possibilities (and the differences between the two Heathrow schemes).
“This will involve reviewing economic impacts, impacts on passenger demand, airline behaviour and possible developments in the aviation industry.
“It is too early in the Commission’s process to draw any conclusions about what this would mean for the other airports serving London and the southeast but in either scenario, airports and the airlines that fly from them will need to react to changes in the commercial environment, while continuing to manage the constraints on their operation.“
The consultation paper says: “Under any of the proposals additional capacity will not be delivered at Heathrow or Gatwick until the 2020s.
“Even once this additional capacity has come on stream the demand for aviation in London and the southeast cannot be met by growth at Heathrow or Gatwick alone.
“The other airports serving London and the southeast will continue to need to provide capacity to meet this demand.”
Flybe, welcoming the consultation, said it understood how vital connectivity is for the UK’s economy with 80% of the UK’s GDP generated from outside of the M25.
The regional airline’s chief executive Saad Hammad said: “The paper released today by the Airports Commission is extremely welcome. This important consultation demonstrates how vital regional connectivity is to the airline industry as a whole.
“We pride ourselves on being the UK’s largest regional airline and offer routes from 35 airports across the UK. Our regional bases connect nearly eight million passengers each year.
“We look forward to engaging with the Airports Commission on this issue.”
The Airports Commission also appeared to rule out the possibility of changes to double Air Passenger Duty charges on domestic flights.
The consultation paper says: “The case has been put to the Commission that it may be possible to end the current practice of incurring an APD charge on each flight of a domestic return trip – the so-called ‘double whammy’.
“However, the Commission understands that in 1998 the EC ruled that the practice of charging APD on only one leg of a domestic return journey, which was the UK practice at the time, was in contravention of the EU treaty, because it did not provide the same effective tax treatment for all EU flights.
“The Commission is not minded to question this judgement, unless representations can be made to the contrary by respondents.”