the aviation white paper and the highlands & islands tom matthew highlands & islands...
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The Aviation White Paperand the Highlands & Islands
Tom Matthew
Highlands & Islands Enterprise
“The Highlands”
Inverness MedicalPart of Johnson & Johnson Group1,200 employeesExporting world-wideStaff travelling world-wide on a daily basis
Ensuring Access To Hub Airports
“We cannot have a situation where the regions are denied access to London”
Alastair Darling
Inverness Services:Present Provision Airport Operator Started Frequency
Per WeekDay
Aircraft Base
Gatwick BACitiexpress
- 3 Inverness
Heathrow bmi 04 1 HeathrowLuton easyJet 96 1 Luton
Gatwick easyJet 03 1 Gatwick
• Other Cross-Border Services:
* Manchester* Birmingham* Stockholm
Research Into The Impacts Of Loss of Inverness-Gatwick Service (1)
• Independent study, undertaken in December 2001
• This was before:
* easyJet Gatwick service * bmi Heathrow service
• Based on loss of full service operator with additional services to Luton or Stansted
Research Into The Impacts Of Loss of Inverness-Gatwick Service (2)
• Short-run employment loss of 1,400 Full-Time Equivalent jobs
• Long term impact could be greater - not least through perceptions of the region being:
“peripheral, with minimal interlining and premier routes from the South East”
• Impacts generally felt in “premier” businesses
• “Traditional” cost-benefit analysis cannot quantify the negative impacts in terms of trips no longer made…
• Yet when Inverness-Heathrow ceased in 1997, traffic between London and Inverness fell by 20%
The Findings In Context
• Impact equals one in every hundred jobs in the region
• Loss of “premier” businesses:
* regional GDP per capita is only 75% of the UK level
* under 3% of the region’s businesses employ more than 50 people
• Low population (434,000) means that business base needs to be outward looking-exports and tourism
• Limited business base means that we require the “import” of external expertise
• Impacts would be felt widely in geographic terms
Inverness & Nairn43%
Moray, Badenoch & Strathspey29%
Ross and Cromarty18%
Skye & Lochalsh3%
Caithness & Sutherland7%
Origin of residents using the BA Inverness-Gatwick service
Significance of Interlining
• In the case of Inverness:
“some firms were there on the assumption that they could easily get to London and the US” (Alastair Darling) but…..
• The White Paper defines “London” as: Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and City
“London” Airports:Service Profiles
0 50 100 150 200
Heathrow
Gatwick
Stansted
Luton
City
Number of Destinations
Full Service-Long Haul
Full Service-Short Haul
No Frills
At August 2003
Interlining: Gatwick and Luton Compared
0 10 20 30
BA Gatwick
EZY Luton
% of pax interlining Source: CAA Data
LTN
GATWICK LHR
Possible Alternatives?
• Markets too thin to support extensive direct services to non-UK hubs
• Interlining opportunities at regional airports are much less than at south east hubs
• Surface access: only one direct daytime train between Inverness and London which takes 8 hours
Conclusions• Air services to London generate very significant economic benefits
• Need a mix of services to London airports-no frills and full service
• This must include connections to hub airports, with adequate frequencies and timings
• Interlining opportunities are essential, especially where the remote airport has limited connectivity
• “Defined circumstances” for a PSO should reflect surface travel alternatives
• Good air services are essential to growing regional prosperity