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ON THE SOAPBOX: Tim Alderslade, CEO, Airlines UK

Airlines UK will welcome the new Minister for Transport Heidi Alexander at its annual dinner on Tuesday 25 February.

With ON THE SOAPBOX Chief Executive Officer, Tim Alderslade, reflects on the past year and looks forward into 2025.


The Chancellor’s backing of a third runway at Heathrow has placed aviation firmly on the political agenda. Its welcome that the unique role of aviation as a driver of economic growth for all parts of the UK is being recognised by the Government, whatever the specific challenges or opportunities of any one project. Airlines support more airport capacity to grow the economy and foster trade. We know that every two additional flights added by a UK airline supports another job in the economy, and given our airlines carry over 40% of the UK’s non-EU trade by value, any push for growth or Industrial Strategy cannot leave aviation behind if it wants to succeed.

It is essential then that the positive mood music on aviation, and confidence in our ability to grow whilst delivering on our sustainability commitments, is matched by political urgency to deliver the policies that will keep the sector competitive, and costs as low as possible for UK consumers.

Ultimately, UK airlines’ ability to support growth – both geographically across the nations and regions of the UK, and in support of those high-growth businesses reliant on reaching overseas markets and clients such as finance, life sciences and creative – means keeping the UK a competitive place to run an airline and put on new routes. This is where recent rises in Air Passenger Duty, alongside uniquely high airport charges, our ambitious UK Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) mandate, and increases in the cost of an Electronic Travel Authorisation to visit the UK by 60% to £16 – nearly three times the cost of the EU equivalent – risks keeping growth stuck on the runway.

Government must be alive to the risk that high costs will make it much harder to support growth, notwithstanding the UK’s world-leading aviation sector and robust demand for air travel, that we are confident can underpin a successful UK economy.  

On net zero, airlines are making real progress, but the industry now needs Government help to align support for growth and capacity with further policy support to ensure UK airlines can deliver it. We fully support the SAF mandate, even if SAF does introduce higher costs. It’s vital, however, that these costs are kept as low as possible. We know we can do this by introducing the planned revenue support mechanism for SAF faster, making sure it delivers first-of-a-kind UK SAF plants producing advanced SAFs at a competitive cost for airlines. It means taking practical steps today to widen the pool of feedstocks for SAF producers, including by breaking through the bureaucratic wall that still sees feedstocks that could be used for SAF wastefully burned for energy instead, or left to rot in fields even though it does not compete with food production or land. It also means being alive to the rapid changes in the global market for SAF, so policy does not leave the UK at a competitive disadvantage.

Beyond SAF, we need to accelerate our airspace modernisation programme, including by simplifying a process that is full of risk and sees airports submit thousands of pages of material over years only to see plans fail the process. It means doubling down on the R&D that makes the UK a world leader in new technology including hydrogen, and making sure that the hydrogen and green electricity needs of the UK’s aviation sector are considered in planning for an economy-wide net zero future. Finally, it means a laser-like focus on moving forwards carbon capture and removals solutions, which aviation will need to draw upon to remove our residual emissions.

As we get stuck into 2025, our clear message is that aviation growth and net zero is not a contradiction, but an opportunity, but we need to make the right decisions now if we are going to make it happen.

https://airlinesuk.org

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