AOA and Birmingham Airport's CEO highlight need to match APD cuts
Paul Kehoe (right) said: “The UK needs a proper aviation strategy if we are going to succeed in plugging every region into global business opportunities. APD cuts in Scotland, unmatched in the rest of the country, would take us backwards and could discourage airlines from establishing the new routes that English regions need.
“We are calling on the government to put in place a system of varied APD, with lower rates for non-congested airports.
"This would help rebalance the economy, make best use of existing airport capacity and relieve pressure on congested South East airports. Removing APD from Birmingham Airport would boost the West Midlands economy by over £330 million.”
Birmingham Airport is the UK’s third largest airport outside London, and the UK’s seventh largest overall, handling 10m passengers a year. Over the last 10 years, Birmingham Airport has invested more than £300m to develop its infrastructure and has the capacity to handle 36m passengers a year on its single runway.
Independent analysis has found that the connectivity provided by the Airport in 2014 boosted the West Midlands economy by £1.1 billion in GVA and supported 21,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Across the UK, where more of the Airport’s economic impact is captured, its total impact was estimated at around £1.7 billion in GVA and around 33,000 full-time equivalent jobs.
Responding to the publication of the Scottish Government consultation setting out options for how it intends to reduce APD by 50%, Darren Caplan (right), Chief Executive of the Airport Operators Association, the trade association that represents 55 UK airports, said: “The Scottish Government has been doing all the running on this issue for a long time now, and Ministers in Westminster need to acknowledge that their failure to respond has created a lot of uncertainty.
"Scottish Ministers have been quite clear that they will start to reduce APD by 50% in 2018. Given that the Treasury’s own analysis suggests that such a move will create a competitive distortion and damage airports in other parts of the UK, we desperately need the Chancellor to respond to his own discussion paper on this matter – itself well over six months old – and offer reassurances that a cut anywhere in the UK should be matched immediately by a cut everywhere.”