Regional Airports

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 7th July 2021 Westminster Hall

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms McVey, as you are my constituency neighbour.

I congratulate the hon. Member for St Austell and Newquay (Steve Double) on securing this timely debate and on his superb chairmanship of the APPG on general aviation. He was followed by the hon. Members for Truro and Falmouth (Cherilyn Mackrory) and for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross (Jamie Stone)—it was almost Land’s End to John O’ Groats, but not quite. They gave strong defences of their airports, including Wick airport in the north, and spoke of the exciting prospect of the first hybrid flight from Newquay to Exeter.

There have been a few common themes. As ever, my right hon. Friend the Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) spoke about the need for continuing support, as did the hon. Member for Mansfield (Ben Bradley), who said that there is no sector-specific support. Indeed, those Members will know that 19,000 BA staff are still on furlough. Those section notices have to go out in the next few weeks. We are standing on a cliff edge and something needs to happen.

My hon. Friend the Member for Newcastle upon Tyne North (Catherine McKinnell) spoke eloquently about how uneven the opening-up process of international travel has been. Less than two weeks ago, the Minister got uncharacteristically upset with me when I diverged on policy and said that Labour’s view was to scrap the amber list. We now know that, as The Times reported this morning, the Government will scrap the amber list tomorrow when the Secretary of State makes his announcement, so there we have it.

Following on from the remarks by the hon. Member for Paisley and Renfrewshire North (Gavin Newlands), I am glad that peace has prevailed between our nations. The people’s republic of Greater Manchester and the Scottish nation were almost going to go to war when the First Minister banned us from travelling. Some 2.8 million of us were going to march up the M6 in our City and United shirts, under our Oasis parkas, and stand at the border at Gretna shouting, “Nice one, nice one!” but the First Minister has backed down. That decision alone has cost businesses in my constituency tens of thousands of pounds. I hope that the Scottish Government will now think about adequately compensating business for that, but peace now reigns in our time.

I have listened intently to the debate, and to unions, airports, operators and representatives of the aviation industry. What is clear is that without a genuine sectoral deal, the sector and our regional airports will be in peril. Look back at all that the regional airports have had to contend with over the last few years: the collapse of airlines such as Flybe and Monarch, and of the operator Thomas Cook, which are hugely significant in our part of the world in Manchester, as well as for regional connectivity.

Those low-cost carriers opened up areas such as Southampton, Blackpool, Newquay and Birmingham for business and leisure travellers, and they opened up the rest of the world to the people who live there. Welcoming tourists to those areas boosted the economy, hotels, restaurants and taxi drivers. My hometown is currently hosting the wonderful Manchester international festival. Without Humberside airport, would we have seen such a fantastic event at Hull city of culture? Airports are vital for regional economies.

It is not merely culture and tourism that are affected. I understand only too well the value, economically or otherwise, of representing an airport community. I am sure that colleagues who have spoken to represent their constituencies know how important those communities are when it comes to connectivity, particularly the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon). I must ask him: do airlines arrange their schedules around his interventions in debates? I really wish to know the answer to that question.

Although the Government repeatedly refer to the package of support that aviation has had, there are some specific industry concerns that do not seem to be recognised at all. The covid pandemic has hit this country and its people hard. We have one of the worst death tolls in the world, and we cannot allow the death of the aviation sector and the closure of regional airports to exacerbate the devastation. The often-talked-about £7 billion package of support, which the Minister will mention in his response, is in the form of loans to the industry—it is debt to the industry. As we move into our lost second summer, the ability to service those debts while being unable to operate is striking fear throughout the industry, and there is the looming spectre of further job losses.

We must consider broader sector-specific support. It is not just about airlines and airports; it is about a whole range of other businesses. My colleagues and I have worked with stakeholders to reach a position that protects jobs, the wider supply chain and—crucially, as we head towards 2050—the environment. The sectoral deal that we suggest is based on six conditions. It will save jobs, tackle climate change and ensure that companies benefiting from the sector support rebase their tax affairs in the UK, which is the patriotic thing to do.

We support global Britain, but we are falling behind the rest of the world. If the Government are serious about rebalancing our economy, they must provide a sector-specific deal. The fund was announced last March, but here we are in July and there is no meaningful restart for aviation. If the Government are to provide confidence for travellers and protect these vital hubs, they have to give us a deal.

My last point—I am sure we are all in agreement—is that we absolutely must rebuild the sector, get businesses going again and get people flying again. As far as possible, we must make this a green recovery. There is no easy way to mitigate the environmental impact of aviation, but whether the green recovery is achieved by reducing fuel consumption, by introducing smarter flight operations and new aircraft engine technology, by modernising the airspace, on which I hope to work with the Minister, or by using sustainable aviation fuels, we must make the industry cleaner and greener. What better footnote to the terrible impact that we have all felt from the coronavirus pandemic than to have our regional airports thriving, with green jobs alongside the other jobs that we previously mentioned? Our regions are crying out for new types of well-paid, highly skilled employment. Let us use this opportunity to save our regional airports and create a greener, sustainable recovery in every region of this nation.