The Airport Operator Magazine - Pages 5-7
Regional & City Airports CEO, Andrew Bell, is urging the new Ministerial team at the Department for Transport to take action to help regional airports to recover fully from the Covid pandemic and to increase connectivity.
Bell told The Airport Operator that there is an opportunity for the new Aviation Minister, Baroness Vere, and for the Government to “make use of the UK’s regional airports as assets in the development of their strategies around the future of aviation and Jet Zero”
Specifically, he said the Government should consider:
• Including regional airports in proposed new investment zones. He said that it would make sense to involve regional airports in local authority zone applications because many have the scale, scope and aspiration to grow and to develop initiatives that would benefit their local communities.
• Working with the aviation sector to ensure that it is has the skills that will be needed for future growth. There should be a particular focus on longer-term requirements, including the training of Air Traffic Controllers and engineers which requires long lead times.
• Making use of the review of Public Service Obligation route rules to enable the complete abolition of Air Passenger Duty on spoke-to-spoke routes between regional airports
