Uncrowded skies…?

An interesting article from the BBC’s online magazine today:

As hundreds continue their protest against expansion plans at Heathrow Airport, what about the dozens of smaller airports around the UK growing at a faster rate?

Twenty minutes after leaving the town centre, the bus pulls up outside the glass-fronted airport terminal, which inside is airy, spacious and full of natural light.

Despite it being the height of summer, with flights departing to Paphos, Gdansk and Dublin, the check-in queue has only 10 people and moves quickly.

From there it’s a 50 yard stroll to the escalators, up to the first floor and through security for a coffee before boarding.

For recent passengers at Heathrow – criticised for overcrowding, queues and lost baggage – this snapshot from Robin Hood Airport near Doncaster may sound like some sort of utopia.

But while Heathrow symbolises how the boom in flying has made the experience less attractive, and has environmental consequences, there is another lesser-known story about the rapid growth in small, regional airports.

Robin Hood opened in April 2005 and already handles a million passengers a year. Last year Blackpool had a 50% rise to 553,000 but its 25-year masterplan predicts it will serve 4.3 million passengers a year by 2030.

In the coming years, growth at regional airports is estimated to be up to 6% a year, considerably higher than at Heathrow, even with a shiny new Terminal 5.

“The growth of the UK regional airports in recent years has been partly driven by low-cost carrier activity, in particular airports competing amongst themselves to offer very attractive airport charges to low-cost carriers like easyJet, Ryanair and Flybe.”

These packages provide the airlines with major incentives for growth, he says, and the custom has mostly been local people going on short-haul holidays. Business travel makes up about a quarter of their business.

“There’s a certain amount of competition between airports like Manchester and Liverpool, Birmingham and East Midlands.

“You don’t find people living in London going to Birmingham Airport, so it’s essentially local demand and it’s not demand driven by traditional flight carriers who have been, if anything, withdrawing from regional airports.”

Most of the airports are privately owned, having been sold off by local authorities. Manchester is a notable exception so its prices are regulated.

About 10 years ago, the liberalisation of the aviation market meant carriers sprung up offering flights at lower and lower prices. Suddenly people in places like Exeter, which has had an airport for 70 years, could fly to Brest in Brittany, France for £50.

The government’s 2003 White Paper set out its vision for air transport and in response each airport submitted a “masterplan” about how it would cope with soaring passenger numbers.

Expansion for some means just getting more check-in desks or car park spaces, which may seem less controversial than a new runway but can spark strong opposition.

As well as the wider climate change debate, there are issues about noise and air pollution, traffic and flight paths over rural areas. Many of these small airports are only accessible by car.

A new wave of protest groups have been created to resist the expansion, even for those airports that are very small. Flights from Lydd in Kent take only 20 minutes to reach Le Touquet in northern France, but there is only one trip there and back each day in summer.

The Lydd Airport Action Group believes plans to extend the runway and build a new terminal to accommodate 500,000 passengers a year will lead to the destruction of Romney Marsh, with few jobs created in return.

The Aviation Environment Federation wants all expansion plans to be halted until the impact on climate is dealt with.

CO2 emissions from flights leaving UK are nearly 7% of national total, but the impact on global warming is three times larger than production of CO2, due to greenhouses gases such as ozone.

Policy officer Peter Lockley says although the masterplans have no legal force within the planning process, they are a backdoor way for airports to institutionalise their plans. He adds that the benefits of expansion are exaggerated.

“We acknowledge that there are economic benefits from airports but it doesn’t follow that you get economic benefits from expanding them. Better-off families taking two, three or four holidays a year – in what sense is that vital to the UK economy?”

Passenger demand is artificially stimulated by price, he says, and people are enticed to go to places like Bratislava for £20 simply because they can.

But Louise Congdon, managing partner of York Aviation, says that as well as providing jobs, regional airports help attract workers.

“The level most of them are operating at, the amount of noise and traffic congestion is relatively limited, and most people take the view that on balance the benefits of having an airport nearby outweighs the damage.”

As well as the convenience, an added attraction of going small is that the passenger experience is better than Heathrow.

“Nothing is as bad as BAA’s London airports,” says Ms Congdon. “Security rules are just the same at every other airport but the perception from airlines is that security queuing is not taking as long and they were quicker off the mark to recruit additional staff. But in defence of BAA, it may be that the labour market away from London is softer.”

But with passenger numbers expected to rise 150% by 2030, the relative tranquillity of smaller airports may not last long.

I do think this article raises some interesting points, such as the convience of using regional airports, the fact that expansion plans are often exaggerated, and also the fact that the labour market maybe softer in the regions than at Heathrow…could this possibly have something to do with the fact that it is so damn expensive to live in London. I do feel sorry for workers that are based out of LHR, as they have to live within a certain proximity of the airport, and rental rates must be astonishingly high, unless you can find a few other work mates to do a flat/house-share!

What are people’s opinions about the growth of regional airports, do you think it will become an issue in the future?

What impact will the growth at regional airports have on the London airports; will it actually help improve the situation, or indeed make things worse, especially from an economics point of view?