Brexit and land availability top airport challenges

Business uncertainty due to Brexit remains the biggest challenge to airport growth beside the availability of land, the Chair of Newcastle Airport’s parent company Iain Malcolm has said.

Mr Malcolm, who is chair of LA7 Airport Holding Company and Leader of South Tyneside Council, told delegates at our Airport Cities Development Conference that the current uncertainty had hit business confidence in the region and would continue to do so until a way forward could be found.

He said: “The biggest challenge to growth once you have the land sorted has to be business confidence and the economy. It is shot at the moment in terms of Brexit I am afraid, we are seeing that to a degree in Newcastle. Many Geordies will [still] go on low-cost flights but businesses are getting nervous over what their long-term growth plans will be. My call is for national politicians to get it sorted out so that we Brexit from the European Union but remain in the single market.” [emaillocker id=”71749″]

He added: “Business is extremely nervous. Britain is a big country, I voted to remain as it is the type of Europe I wanted to live in, but if we’re out [of the EU] we will survive and there’s lots of opportunities to grow and do global trade. But we have to keep our trade links with Europe, aviation needs us to keep our links with the European Union.”

Mr Malcolm was speaking at the conference where a number of the UK’s northern airports outlined their growth plans for the coming decade and highlighted what needed to be done to improve passenger growth and connectivity.

Liz Askam, Property Manager at Doncaster Sheffield Airport said that the operator was working up plans link up the airport to the rail network and allow access to a wider demographic. She said: “As part of our masterplan is a safeguarded rail corridor [close to the airport]. We are proposing to have a new railway station as part of the development, as a spur off the East Coast Main Line.

“That would massively open up the catchment and access to a further 9m passengers within a 90minute travel time. I see regional airports as playing a key role in rebalancing the economy, both North to South but also east to West. If we can deliver on the east coast mainline station that will boost the connectivity of the airport and help us be a massive regional player, for passengers, cargo and businesses that will locate in the employment development.”

Doncaster Sheffield Airport hopes to build up to 5.5m sq ft of development in and around the airport, with 1.5m sq ft of new work to be constructed on the air side [beyond customs] of the airport which would include new aviation facilities and expanded cargo operations as well as 3.5m sq ft of development in and around the airport focusing on logistics and advanced manufacturing. The airport also plans to build up to 2,500 new homes.

Charles Johnson, Head of Planning and Development at Leeds Bradford Airport, which hopes to raise its passenger numbers from 4m in 2018 to up to 7m by 2030, also noted how transport connections would be vital for the airport’s growth plans.

He said: “We are looking to get additional link roads and a train station at the airport. Our project is a parkway station which we will get in the end of 2022/23 we are getting to the end of the GRIP 3 design in terms of railway so are quite well advanced, the funding is partially there we are sorting out the rest of the funding.

Johnson added: “The important thing for us is not the station but to improve the journey times, it will make decisions for people in our catchment area easier as to whether they should get in their car or catch the train. If you are coming from Kirklees the journey time is now 45minutes, that may be a 35 or 30minute journey which makes it an easier decision-making process for passengers.

Mr Johnson also noted that the airport is looking to provide much-needed high quality space for businesses in the North West of Leeds that at present is in dire need.

He said: “I’ve spoken to a lot of businesses within about two to three miles of the airport, those businesses are in very poor accommodation, they are crying out for better, cleaner more efficient buildings to maintain not a shed at the bottom of some industrial estate.

“It is trying to meet the demands of those tenants which have a highly skilled workforce making components for the aviation industry, defence industry and rail industry. It allows us to deliver specialist accommodation. There are a couple of big universities just a few miles down the road from the airport and they do have academic requirements in terms of lab space and in terms of grow on space for new businesses.

“Leeds does have an issue of losing its high tech entrepreneurs to other cities, this employment to deliver that type of accommodation close to those cities.”

Conference speakers also said that any airport city ambitions needed to be joined by cross-regional investment in projects such as the Northern Powerhouse and connecting up HS2 with local rail projects.

Mr Malcolm added that politicians needed to urgently rethink how regions such as the North East and North West are structured if they want to see real progress in schemes such as the Northern Powerhouse.

He said: “There needs to be a fundamental change in how resources are allocated in this country, we are going to continue to see a total imbalance in regional policy making decision. The idea of these regions getting together and calling themselves a northern powerhouse is fine and dandy but unless that have the tax raising powers that they have in Scotland and Wales and to a certain extent Northern Ireland quite frankly we are just talking to ourselves. In Westminster the current crop of politicians are not listening to the regions.” [/emaillocker]