AOA May Monthly Update Chief Executive’s Intro Greetings AOA colleagues, from all at AOA Towers. I’ve been told that click-through rates for the Chief Exec’s Intro article are at their highest when my opening words are interesting and I keep the message sho… Oh well, will give it another go next month. Before getting on to the important stuff I should publicly apologise to the AOA team for being like a bear with a sore head these last few days. As some of you may know, history repeated itself last Saturday when my lifelong football team Crystal Palace once again, 26 years later, failed to keep an FA Cup Final lead for more than 10 minutes against Manchester United; and given I’ve been waiting 26 years since we were last defeated by United in the Final, as you can imagine this rankles pretty strongly. It may be that colleagues at Manchester Airport, and those of you who live in Surrey and the other Home Counties, who support the Reds may be celebrating – all I can say is, sorry Team AOA. It may be another 26 years til Palace get to another Cup Final, but hopefully it won’t take that long to get a decision from the Government on expanding airport capacity. On 1 July it will have been a full year since the Airports Commission published its Final Report; but we are told that there will be a decision in the summer, once the EU Referendum is out the way, and before the parliamentary summer recess on 21 July. The Transport Select Committee in a recent report asked for added impetus to get on with making a decision – see more on this elsewhere in the Update. Let’s hope we get some clarity soon. Talking about the EU Referendum, the AOA Board discussed this last month, and the agreed position view is that: “Voting in the EU Referendum is a personal matter, and the AOA does not have a view as to how individuals should vote. It is clear though that the Single European Market and ‘Open Skies’ policy have been good for aviation. Whatever the outcome of the EU Referendum vote, the AOA will work to maintain and enhance those aspects of the current relationship which have been beneficial to our sector, allowing the industry to grow, delivering cheaper air fares, and opening up new destinations, both at home and abroad. It is vital, irrespective of the vote on 23 June, that the UK continues to benefit from open access to important international markets.” Another timely issue this time of the year is borders. While airports gear up for the busy summer months ahead when passenger numbers are at their highest, overall budget funding for Border Force (BF) is going down (by 0.4%) with little reassurance from BF that things will be covered in the high season. The AOA has been prioritising lobbying activities on this, including meeting with the Home Office Minister with responsibility for borders, James Brokenshire MP, and seeking three asks: Reassurance that BF will provide the basic level of service over the summer, so that there are not long queues or inadequate customer service when airports are at their busiest; With passenger numbers well ahead of forecasts made only three years ago by the DfT, what is the BF’s longer term plan to ensure resources and basic service levels can match these increases in inbound passenger throughput?; and An airport sectoral roundtable with the borders Minister and Border Force to discuss the issues.
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Transcript
AOA May Monthly Update
Chief Executive’s Intro
Greetings AOA colleagues, from all at AOA Towers.
I’ve been told that click-through rates for the Chief Exec’s Intro article are at their highest when my
opening words are interesting and I keep the message sho…
Oh well, will give it another go next month.
Before getting on to the important stuff I should publicly apologise to the AOA team for being like a
bear with a sore head these last few days. As some of you may know, history repeated itself last
Saturday when my lifelong football team Crystal Palace once again, 26 years later, failed to keep an
FA Cup Final lead for more than 10 minutes against Manchester United; and given I’ve been waiting
26 years since we were last defeated by United in the Final, as you can imagine this rankles pretty
strongly. It may be that colleagues at Manchester Airport, and those of you who live in Surrey and the
other Home Counties, who support the Reds may be celebrating – all I can say is, sorry Team AOA.
It may be another 26 years til Palace get to another Cup Final, but hopefully it won’t take that long to
get a decision from the Government on expanding airport capacity. On 1 July it will have been a full
year since the Airports Commission published its Final Report; but we are told that there will be a
decision in the summer, once the EU Referendum is out the way, and before the parliamentary
summer recess on 21 July. The Transport Select Committee in a recent report asked for added impetus
to get on with making a decision – see more on this elsewhere in the Update. Let’s hope we get some
clarity soon.
Talking about the EU Referendum, the AOA Board discussed this last month, and the agreed position
view is that:
“Voting in the EU Referendum is a personal matter, and the AOA does not have a view as to how
individuals should vote. It is clear though that the Single European Market and ‘Open Skies’ policy have
been good for aviation. Whatever the outcome of the EU Referendum vote, the AOA will work to
maintain and enhance those aspects of the current relationship which have been beneficial to our
sector, allowing the industry to grow, delivering cheaper air fares, and opening up new destinations,
both at home and abroad. It is vital, irrespective of the vote on 23 June, that the UK continues to benefit
from open access to important international markets.”
Another timely issue this time of the year is borders. While airports gear up for the busy summer
months ahead when passenger numbers are at their highest, overall budget funding for Border Force
(BF) is going down (by 0.4%) with little reassurance from BF that things will be covered in the high
season. The AOA has been prioritising lobbying activities on this, including meeting with the Home
Office Minister with responsibility for borders, James Brokenshire MP, and seeking three asks:
Reassurance that BF will provide the basic level of service over the summer, so that there are not long
queues or inadequate customer service when airports are at their busiest;
With passenger numbers well ahead of forecasts made only three years ago by the DfT, what is the
BF’s longer term plan to ensure resources and basic service levels can match these increases in
inbound passenger throughput?; and
An airport sectoral roundtable with the borders Minister and Border Force to discuss the issues.
We have lobbied for the 8 June Inter Ministerial Group on Tourism – which includes Ministers
responsible for Tourism, Home Office, Business, Innovation & Skills, Communities & Local
Government, Transport, Treasury, Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Culture, Media & Sport – to
discuss borders and are assured that it will be on the agenda. More on this elsewhere in the Update;
and watch this space for future developments.
As usual, there are a plethora of relevant public affairs, policy and ops and safety issues in this month’s
Update, including: on Air Passenger Duty (the recent Scottish elections have seen the SNP lose their
Scottish Parliament majority meaning the moves to cut APD in Scotland by 50% will need to be
negotiated with other parties if the policy is to get through); the Government’s response to the
Transport Select Committee report on surface access to airports, the Government review of VAT free
airport shops, the announcement of the new department for Transport Director for Aviation, and what
last week’s Queen’s Speech had to say for transport and aviation. There are also reports on three
recent, well-attended, AOA events on market outlook, environment and security. And don’t forget to
book your places for the upcoming Ops & Safety Conference, at Mottram Hall, Manchester, on 20-21
June – plenty to discuss.
Before signing off, I would like to pay final tribute to Leonie Martin and Tim Alderslade, who are
completing their final month at the AOA. Leo has been involved with the AOA for nigh on 15 years,
and in addition to being its Accountant has worked on Ops & Safety as well as helped with office
management and events assistance! Tim has been with the AOA for three and a half years, and has
developed into a top notch lobbyist, with some great wins and awards to his name from his time here
– we wish him luck in his new role as Chief Executive at BATA, so AOA members will continue to see
him on a regular basis.
Replacing them we have Avni Patel on the accounts side, who has been promoted from Accounts
Assistance to Accounts Executive, and Henk van Klaveren, who joins us on 31 May as our new Public
Affairs and PR Manager. Good luck to both in their new roles!
And enjoy the Update.
Darren
AOA Chief Executive
Transport Select Committee urges Government to set clear timetable for airport expansion
The Transport Select Committee has issued a report, urging Secretary of State for Transport Patrick
McLoughlin to set out a clear timetable for expansion, making clear the measures which have been
accepted or rejected and the work which needs to be completed.
The Chair of the Transport Committee, Louise Ellman MP, said:
"The Government must make up its mind. The decision on location is not the end of the process, it is
the start of one. Real progress cannot begin until the location is declared. Work on environmental
issues can run in parallel with other pre-construction work. Across the world, cities are collectively
planning to build more than 50 new runways with capacity to serve one billion additional passenger
journeys by 2036. The growth of large hubs in the Middle and Far East and North America threatens
our position as a hub of international aviation. The UK's connectivity with the world's emerging
markets is a major concern. The months ticking by constitute time wasted for the UK's economic
prosperity. UK plc needs to know that a decision will be taken. Doing nothing means the UK continues
to lose out."
The full report can be found here.
Government responds to the Transport Select Committee report on 'Surface transport to airports'
The Government has responded to Transport Select Committee’s (TSC) recommendations on surface
access to airports, with a number of recommendations to “promote greater use of public transport to
airports as part of its overarching approach to a competitive aviation sector, putting passengers and
airport workers needs at the top of our agenda”.
The response sets out 19 recommendations, covering the issues of ‘Passenger preference and modal
shift’, ‘Planning for future demand’, ‘Planning surface access schemes’, and ‘Who pays?’. The full
report can be found here, and the AOA will be evaluating how these recommendations chime with
the our submission to the TSC’s inquiry into surface access, which can be seen here.
The response is below. For further information on this, please contact AOA Policy Manager Peter