AIRPORTS
of aircraft to in-demand routes, coupled with the right airport charging structures in place. “Likewise, to ensure that
those routes are viable and sustainable they need the right infrastructure in place. This includes surface transport links in place with sufficient reach and frequency that will not only encourage business travellers to use them but also offer the potential to extend their catchment area,” he adds. “Such growth can support
the growth of point-to-point routes across regional air- ports to destinations and new markets outside of the EU that will see an increasing challenge to London and the south-east as the preferred hub. “We don’t expect to see a decline in the demand for global routes and as a result Heathrow needs to ensure it is in a position to compete on a global scale as well as on a domestic one to meet the challenge of the shift in direct routes out of the UK from wider regions.”
Birmingham Airport recently joined the GTMC
DIRECT APPROACH Pat McDonagh, chief executive at Clarity Travel Management, agrees. “It has been said that Manchester is the country’s ‘most connected’ airport, in that you can fly to more destinations from there than from any other airport in the UK. Yes, that may be true, but you are likely to have a greater choice of schedule, frequency and carrier at Heathrow. “Very few people are travelling from
their office – if I’m going on a transatlantic trip, I am not going into the office first. The working assumption seems to be that people
“For regional airports to compete with London will require significant advances in smaller aircraft technology coupled with the right airport charging structures”
using their ‘local’ airport would connect through Heathrow, but, in fact, you might go through Amsterdam or Charles de Gaulle.” For Andrew Newton, head of corporate
travel (Europe) at Direct Travel in Scotland, London is almost becoming an irrelevance. “Edinburgh airport has excellent commu- nication with the local travel industry. The recent direct service between Edinburgh and China, announced in March, will be helpful for both corporate and leisure clients.
The UK’s newest regional airport
On June 4, Scottish carrier Loganair will launch scheduled services from Carlisle Lake District Airport (CLDA) to London Southend, Belfast City and Dublin, ostensibly making the Cumbrian gateway the UK’s newest regional airport.
Over time, CLDA has been the subject of all sorts of grandiose plans, most of which failed to get off the ground. Scheduled services were started and quickly withdrawn, owners came and went. Loganair wants to change all that, and will undoubtedly be eyeing the year-round corporate market. Those BBT readers labouring under the misapprehension that Cumbria is all about Kendal Mint Cake and not much else, well, they’re in for a surprise. The county is at the forefront of “nuclear and energy excellence” – think Sellafield and British Nuclear Fuels – BAe Systems owns the Barrow-in-Furness shipyard (one of the largest in the UK), and other big names with a presence in the county include Tata Steel, Kimberley-Clark, Glaxosmithkline, Heinz and Pirelli.
BUYINGBUSINESSTRAVEL.COM “We are also pleased to have seen other
new international services launched out of Edinburgh in the past few years. These include direct routes to Doha and Abu Dhabi, reducing the reliance on flights from Edinburgh into London as the main hub airport for international travel.” Does it not make sense, from a travel
manager’s point of view, to channel travel- lers through as few airports as possible? It turns out this is the wrong question. “When planning any air travel, the core require- ments from a business traveller include a preference for direct connections wherever possible to reduce transfer time, and the ability to be able to work while on the move in addition to competitive fares and safety,” says Parkes. “Any robust travel programme and policy
should have the right framework in place to support duty-of-care and traveller safety whatever route they travel on and however many airports that route requires.” McDonagh is rather more peremptory.
“It’s only data. If I’ve got ten people trav- elling, it really doesn’t matter whether they’re going through Heathrow. And what if Heathrow goes down? I’ve then got all ten travellers stranded.” Looking ahead, can the UK sustain so
many regional airports? “There is a very real challenge on the horizon with the growth in regional airports, but any increase in routes, be they domestic or international, is good news for the business travel community and the UK economy,” says Parkes. “The key is ensuring they have the right investment in place to enable them to operate efficiently in the long term.” Investment for regional airports does not
appear to be an issue. However, Heathrow has much work to do to reassure MPs ahead of June’s Parliamentary vote that putting up £14 billion for a new runway is going to be money well spent.
BBT May/June 2018 137
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152
