Airports (Amendment) Bill [HL]

Lord Maginnis of Drumglass Excerpts

Friday 16th March 2012 Lords Chamber

[Lord Maginnis of Drumglass]

My Lords, I congratulate my noble friend Lord Empey on bringing this matter to the Floor of the House. I support this short Bill in so far as it is designed to protect and safeguard air access and connectivity for the constituent parts of this United Kingdom. Here I respond to the noble Earl, Lord Caithness, who somehow seems to think that because speeches so far had used Northern Ireland as an example we are somehow constraining ourselves to that one region of the United Kingdom. That is not so. What I am about to say applies to every region of the United Kingdom, whether Belfast, Glasgow, Cardiff or Newcastle—and so on. All are, to an extent, peripheral and detached from Europe, which is why daily air access to the main airport hub in the capital city is so essential to our economy and people.

The Northern Ireland link to Heathrow is served from two airports—by Aer Lingus operating from Belfast International Airport, and British Midland International from the Belfast City Airport. Aer Lingus is the main business carrier—and I emphasise business carrier—with 62 per cent of the market share, but BMI actually carries more passengers. Between them, they provide nine daily rotations. Both carry significant numbers, about 720,000 passengers last year, on a 60-40 split between BMI and Aer Lingus. Both airlines say that the routes are profitable and, accordingly, both are necessary. In short, they are the business and social lifeline for Northern Ireland. John Doran, the managing director of Belfast International Airport, put it succinctly when he said:

“For worldwide markets, read access via Heathrow, both currently and for the foreseeable future”.

All of us here recognise the value of Heathrow slots. The worry is that the IAG—or British Airways, as it was—may seek to reallocate some of the recently acquired BMI Belfast slots and use them on more profitable long-haul routes. Set against that, we have assurances from IAG’s Willie Walsh on maintaining a Belfast service. Aer Lingus, too, has said that its Belfast International service is guaranteed, and there are indications that the airline might even be keen to expand its Northern Ireland operations. At this time, such development would be welcome. Such reassurance that Heathrow will not be severed from Belfast, and vice versa, lifts some anxiety.

According to the Northern Ireland Assembly, 2012 is Northern Ireland’s time and place, and I hope that it is right and can deliver. The region is being marketed internationally as never before. The current prowess of our home-grown golfers and plans to add a prestigious new golf course to those we already have provides new opportunities. We know that golfers love to come and play on our links courses. Properly managed, tourism alone can account for thousands of badly needed new jobs in the province. While our heavy engineering industry has declined since my youth, its legacy now rests in our light engineering and needs the sort of linkage that tourism needs throughout the globe. Hence our overriding ambition has been the safeguarding of enough daily seats to meet market demand.

Maintaining core global links via London Heathrow into Belfast is of paramount importance. While the words of Mr Walsh of IAG, and of Aer Lingus, are comforting, what if we did not have those words and statements tomorrow, the next day or next year? That is why I support the Bill, as it gives the legislative framework needed to protect our Northern Ireland-Heathrow connectivity, not just for the capital and not just to the capital but throughout the world. I commend it to all the other regions as a safeguard that ties us politically and economically within the union—that is, within the United Kingdom to which we all belong and to which all of its regions contribute, and where, I hope, the Government recognise their responsibility to ensure equity and equality of opportunity.