On Monday, I wrote to Louise Ellman MP and Chair of the influential House of Common’s Transport Select Committee and to West Midlands MP, Chloe Smith whom sits on the Committee. I have invited Ms Ellman and her Committee to visit Greater Birmingham to hear for themselves the frustrations of businesses working hard to grow their exports whilst constrained by the lack of point-to-point direct flights from Birmingham Airport to the fastest growing economies around the world.
Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce members have prioritised the expansion of flights from Birmingham Airport for over ten years. So passionate have we been that we led a successful bid in 2011 to secure £17.5 million of Regional Growth Fund monies from government – the final piece of the financial jig-saw necessary to ensure the runway could be lengthened.
The Davies Commission has left the door ajar (just) in terms of recognising the importance of more point-to-point direct flights from regional airports. Davies also acknowledges the importance of utilising spare capacity at airports – Birmingham’s runway can ramp up to take another 27 million passengers a year.
Nine million of these could be delivered overnight, with no significant new development.
Since it will be at least fifteen years before any new runways can be built in London or the South-East, Birmingham Airport has an opportunity to win business in the interim – very much part of the airport’s strategy.
The majority of the Davies report spoke about the choices between the London airports. Yet the brief for the Commission was to take a 30-year view on the aviation requirements of the UK economy. You will struggle to find any long-term economic insights in the report. The game-changing potential of HS2 is dismissed as being unproven in its likely impacts.
I hope Ms Ellman and her committee accept my invitation. We need to deliver an integrated transport strategy so that our roads, ports, rail and air services enable the economic potential of tomorrow’s UK economy. Left unchallenged, Davies will simply embed more of the same.
* Jerry Blackett, Chief Executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce
