Aviation Sector

Baroness Laing of Elderslie Excerpts

Thursday 10th September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Relevant Documents: Second report of the Transport Committee, “The impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the aviation sector”, HC 268, and the Government response, HC 745; and e-petition 303081, “Support the British aviation industry during the covid-19 outbreak”.]

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Before we come to the Backbench Business Committee debate on the aviation sector, as must be obvious to the House, 59 Back Benchers wish to speak and it will not be possible to get everyone in. Eventually, there will be a time limit of three minutes, but we will start on the Back Benches—not of course the hon. Gentleman, the mover of the motion—with a limit of five minutes. Very soon, that will reduce to three minutes. I give the warning now, so that people may edit their copious notes.

--- Later in debate ---

[Huw Merriman]

My right hon. Friend is right. Across the House we expect the best from our premium brands if they are to be our flag carriers. If a company is saying to its staff, “You might be required to allow us to put you out of work for eight-weeks during the year without pay”—that is two months—“and at other times we might effectively put you on furlough without pay”, how on earth is a member of staff supposed to react?

What I would say before I take one more intervention—[Interruption.] I will not take another intervention, Madam Deputy Speaker. I see an opportunity for British Airways here. It is fair to say that the new chief executive, Luis Gallego, is a thoughtful and reasonable man who is two days into his job. I do not believe he will have the same scorched earth approach to industrial relations as his predecessor. There is still time, because these terms have not yet come out, for British Airways to do the right thing. Perhaps it will do what Ryanair has done and said, “There is a 20% pay cut across the board, for everybody. That pay will be returned when better times come.” We know that our aviation sector has better times to come. I say to IAG’s chief executive: it is not too late, you still have time to do the right thing and protect your workforce and your brand. On that note, Madam Deputy Speaker, I give way completely and allow the debate to continue.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his courtesy and for understanding that a great many people wish to speak this afternoon. We will therefore begin with a time limit of five minutes, and I call Abena Oppong-Asare.

--- Later in debate ---

[Rachel Hopkins (Luton South) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way on that point about airport operators. In my patch, I have been in regular contact with the operator of Luton airport, which is responsible directly and indirectly for 11,000 jobs in Luton that are potentially at risk. But this is not only about jobs. It is also about the important revenue streams that come from the airport into Luton Council and wider voluntary and charitable organisations. Do you agree that part of this debate is about those vital revenue streams, as well as jobs?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

Order. It is an intervention, not a speech, and Members must refer to one another as “the hon. Member”, not “you”.

[Abena Oppong-Asare]

My hon. Friend raises a really important point, which I completely support, and it echoes the conversations that I have had with operators in the aviation sector.

The obvious inaction has been noticed across the industry, and while some employers have a will to act in their employees’ best interests, that is not possible without a support package. One employer contacted me to clarify that, while the Government repeatedly refer to the package of support that aviation has had, the specific nature of industry concerns have not been recognised at all. My colleagues and I have made it clear to employers and businesses, and I will re-emphasise it to the Government today, that we want to work in collaboration with all those affected to ensure that a plan can be put in place to secure the future of the industry. This debate is not about political point scoring. It is about holding the Government to account where they have failed the best interests of people across the UK.

My colleagues on the shadow Front Bench have worked with unions and other stakeholders to produce a policy position that can help to protect jobs, the wider supply chain and the environment. I urge the Government to listen to the recommendations that have come from within the industry to implement a robust plan and to provide a bail-out package to the aviation sector.

I also urge the Government to consider taking action on recommendations from industry leaders. The first is the need for the introduction of airport testing to minimise the need for mandatory 14-day self-isolation. It is clear to all now that the risk posed by covid-19 will not be eliminated in the immediate future, but when cases do begin to fall again—and they will—we must have a system in place to encourage the economy to immediately reopen. Passengers have been discouraged from travelling because they know they will have to quarantine for 14 days upon arrival back in the UK, even if they test negative for covid-19. The blanket quarantine rules are another reflection of the Government’s lack of preparedness as more infections were traced back to different travel destinations, to which the Government responded with a short-sighted and damaging policy.

This is why I am calling on the Government to work with businesses to produce a clear commitment to tackling climate change and investing to make the use of cleaner fuels and other low or zero-emission technologies viable options for businesses. If the Government truly want us to be the world leader, we must start acting like one. Direct emissions from aviation account for 2% of global greenhouse gas emissions. The threat to our planet, our country and our constituencies from climate change is ever growing.

Covid-19 has caused businesses and individuals to operate differently, as we are forced to come up with creative solutions to problems that we did not expect to face. We should take this opportunity to factor in the wider issues that urgently need tackling. The aviation sector has been impacted by measures relating to covid-19 in a very specific but not limited way. The entire industry and my colleagues on the Opposition Benches are ready to work with the Government to develop a plan for the future, and I hope that the Secretary of State for Transport and the Prime Minister are ready to engage in the urgently needed discussion.

[Mrs Theresa May (Maidenhead) (Con)]

I refer Members to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I welcome the Under-Secretary of State for Transport, my hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Robert Courts), to his place. In one sense, I welcome this debate, because it gives an opportunity for us all across the House to point out how important the aviation sector is to our economy, to jobs and, indeed, to global Britain. In another sense, I am rather sorry that we are having to have this debate, because it suggests that the Government have not quite yet got the message about the importance of the aviation sector.



Before I come to my main point, I wish to pick up on one of the points raised by my hon. Friend the Member for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), who referred to the British Airways situation. I have constituents affected by the British Airways decisions, about which I have had concerns that I have raised with the company, but I also have constituents who will be losing jobs at other airlines and at Heathrow airport itself. That is an impact of the rapid reduction in the number of people who are flying around the world. The best way to ensure that those people have jobs and to support those jobs is to get planes flying again. I welcome the fact that the Government have introduced the air bridges—that was a positive move—but I fear that the air bridges have increased not certainty but uncertainty for people, because of the constant changes that have taken place, sometimes within 24 hours.

Although I have some concerns about the air bridge policy, I wish to focus on testing, and I welcome what the hon. Member for Erith and Thamesmead (Abena Oppong-Asare) said about the importance of testing. First, let me set out the background. This is an important point: stopping people flying into the UK is not going to mean that there is no virus here in the UK—the virus is here; we are going to continue to have cases of covid and will have more cases in the coming months—but it does mean job losses and a negative impact on our economy. Passenger numbers at Heathrow have fallen by 82% and cargo is down 35%. It is reckoned that for every 1,000 passengers, one job is created. The fewer passengers, the fewer jobs. Cargo is also important, particularly for the UK as we are looking to improve our trading relationships around the world, and a lot of cargo is carried on passenger flights.

Sadly, there are those who say that if we want to promote testing and therefore reduce quarantine and increase the number of flights, we are putting public health at risk and putting the economy first. This is not an either/or situation; it is about assessing the proportionate risks. It is about mitigating the risk of people coming into the UK with the virus while at the same time reducing the risk of a damaging impact on the economy. I am certain that testing has to be the way forward in the foreseeable future, but at the moment airports are not even permitted to trial tests on passengers.

It is incredibly important that, far from leading the world, the UK is lagging behind. Japan has been testing since April, and Germany, France, Austria and Iceland all have testing, which variously reduces the quarantine period or means that people can abandon it. In all, 30 countries have testing facilities at their airports. British companies, with their ingenuity, have been developing new rapid tests—TravelSafe Systems recently demonstrated one to me in a GP surgery in my constituency. The infrastructure is there and the testing capability is there and being advanced as we speak.

Crucially, trials would provide data. Currently, decisions are taken on the basis of modelling, which has not proved itself to be infallible during this pandemic. Real data would be much a better basis for making decisions. The Government’s position currently appears to be that if there is a risk with testing that one person has a false negative, we cannot test anybody. That is a counsel of perfection and it is wrong. We have to see testing introduced in our airports. We are talking about not a single test to abandon all quarantine, but possibly a test on arrival and a test a few days later to reduce the quarantine period.

I am sorry that the Minister finds himself responding to this debate, because I think the DFT gets this, so my message is to No. 10, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, the Treasury and the Department of Health and Social Care, and it is a simple one: if we want to get the economy moving, and if we want to get planes flying again, give airports permission to trial tests. Stop the UK dragging its feet; let us lead the world and set the standard to restore world travel and world trade.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Eleanor Laing)]

I have to reduce the time limit to three minutes.