WORLD ROUTES: Birmingham Airport Responds to Davies Commission Statement

It was no real surprise that Sir Howard Davies, Chair of the Airports Commission, revealed last week that some additional runway capacity will be required in the south east of England in the coming decades, but confirmation of The Airports Commission’s emerging thinking means we are one small step closer to a decision being taken over the long-discussed subject of airport capacity in London and the south east of England.

In a speech at the Centre for London on October 7, 2013, Sir Howard Davies said that the Commission’s emerging thinking was that pressure on the UK’s busiest airports is likely to continue to grow even if we take a more conservative view of future aviation demand than the Department for Transport has in the past.

This would see levels of future demand in excess of capacity in the south east of England airport system and importantly, appears to be the case even if future aviation demand is constrained in order to meet the government’s legislated climate change objectives. As Sir Howard Davies noted, it is difficult to see how the market alone could resolve the capacity / demand imbalance in the south east and although regional airports are already serving their local markets effectively it is difficult to see how they can absorb all the excess demand.

“Our provisional conclusion is that we will need some net additional runway capacity in the south east of England in the coming decades,” said Sir Howard Davies. “To rely only on runways currently in operation would be likely to produce a distinctly sub-optimal solution for passengers, connectivity and the economy and would also almost certainly not be the best solution in terms of minimising the overall carbon impact of flights and travel to and from airports.”

Speaking to The HUB at World Routes in Las Vegas, Paul Kehoe, Chief Executive of Birmingham Airport, said he welcomed the announcement from the Airports Commission as a positive step towards putting in place a long-term aviation strategy that supports the wider UK economy.

“At Birmingham Airport, we believe that this country needs a network of long-haul airports serving our great cities. Clearly, getting the right amount of aviation capacity for London is absolutely critical for the smooth functioning of such a network – but that is not the end of the story,” he said.

“To build a balanced Britain, we need international gateways up and down the country that are delivering on all cylinders for economies across the whole of the UK – including the South East, the Midlands, the North and Scotland. “We’ve had a good steer on the capacity issue but we look forward to hearing more about aviation and the national economy in the Interim Report in December,” he added.

You can hear more of Paul Kehoe’s views on the Airports Commission’s emerging thinking in our exclusive video interview from World Routes, below.