Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 28 March 2022 to Question 143828, on Manchester Airport: India, whether his Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of using the Air Route Development Fund to establish direct connectivity between Manchester airport and (a) New Delhi and (b) Mumbai.

Airports and airlines operate in a competitive market, and it is for airlines to determine the routes they operate based on their own assessment of whether routes are commercially viable.

A government-funded Air Route Development Fund does not exist, and there are no plans to develop such a fund to support international connectivity.