AirportsUK chair Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith said business rates are holding back airport investment, as Heidi Alexander highlighted expansion approvals, SAF policy and airspace modernisation.
The chair of AirportsUK, Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith, has called on the UK Government to match its rhetoric on driving economic growth with action on airport business rates.
Speaking in her opening remarks at the AirportsUK Annual Conference: Airports in a Changing World on 14 October, Baroness McGregor-Smith said the government must:
“Ensure that we have a tax and regulatory framework that delivers a world-class aviation sector by encouraging and rewarding investment in the UK particularly business rates, which are proving such a brake on investment.”
Transport Secretary points to expansion and airspace progress
Addressing the same conference, Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander highlighted recent growth across the sector. She said July saw the busiest day for UK air traffic since 2019, with 172 million passengers passing through UK airports in the first seven months of the year.
She also pointed to continued year-on-year growth at Edinburgh Airport (EDI), Cardiff Airport (CWL) and Newcastle International Airport (NCL), as well as Birmingham Airport’s (BHX) recently announced £2 billion investment plan to grow passenger numbers.
Alexander cited her approval of plans to expand London Luton Airport (LTN), which she said will almost double passenger capacity to 32 million per year through terminal upgrades and additional taxiways. She also referenced her decision to give the green light to London Gatwick Airport’s (LGW) northern runway programme, which she said would unlock “new destinations and hundreds of thousands of extra flights”.
On sustainable aviation fuel (SAF), she noted that the SAF Mandate is now in effect and that the government has legislated for the Revenue Certainty Mechanism, as well as funding SAF projects across the country.
“The challenge is now delivery, on a commercial scale. But the intent is clear: SAF will be the future, and that future will be designed with you, not imposed on you.”
Alexander said airspace modernisation, long promised, is now being delivered, citing the establishment of the UK Airspace Design Service for London and the South East, the creation of the Airspace Design Support Fund for the rest of the UK, and simplified Air Navigation Guidance.
She said the Civil Aviation Bill will give the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) a single safety rulebook, replacing the current fragmented model.
Alexander described airports as “front and centre” of the government’s vision for growth, adding: “It’s why I will never dim the light of aviation’s ambition. Because when you succeed, Britain succeeds.”
In closing, Baroness McGregor-Smith said: “Aviation continues to be one of the UK’s genuine success stories; we remain one of the largest markets in Europe and the world. We have a great opportunity to ensure we consolidate and improve that position.”
The conference brings together 200 senior leaders from airports, airlines, investors and suppliers, alongside government and opposition ministers, officials from Whitehall and the devolved administrations, and commentators.
Speakers this year include shadow transport secretary Richard Holden MP, economist Paul Johnson, Spectator editor Lord Michael Gove and Lords Home Office minister Lord Ray Collins, with panel sessions covering investment, adaptation and resilience, connectivity and the wider state of the aviation sector.
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