Corporate aircraft are deemed to be a more vital ingredient of the overall traffic mix in the UK.
Chris Yates/MANCHESTER
AS PRESSURE ON slots intensifies at many of the UK's primary airports, operators are becoming choosy about the type of general-aviation activity they wish to support, says Graham Forbes, chief executive of the General Aviation Manufacturers and Traders Association (GAMTA). Of the two types, private/flying-club activity and business aviation, he claims there is now a definite bias toward corporate users which are deemed to be a more vital ingredient of the overall traffic mix.
Different airports, he says, have varied opinions on how the two aspects of GA activity should be treated. "At Manchester, for example, there is the hint of a squeeze on the flying schools, yet clearly the airport wants to retain the business-aviation facilities". He says that the same is true at Birmingham, and that, although the airport states that it is keen to retain all GA, there is "-a feeling that private and flying club activity is not as welcome".
At the BAA-owned airports in the south of England, meanwhile, he says that there is a "-continuing uneasy situation. Business aviation is achieving opportunity slots at Heathrow, but Gatwick is the great problem, and this year so far corporate users have had great difficulty getting suitable slots, particularly in the mornings."
Mike Huddart, Manchester's general manager, airfield, confirms that the squeeze is on at his airport. "There are fewer and fewer opportunities for the flying schools to operate and the primary objective of the airport over recent years has been to concentrate on business aviation, as opposed to pleasure flying." It is, he says, inevitable that slots will become more difficult to obtain, even if the airport gets a second runway. "When it becomes operational, the pressures which will be on air-traffic control for operation of both runways means that there will be few opportunities for pleasure and training flights," he adds.
Huddart says that he understands the benefits of operating at a major airport. "The people who are now flying from Manchester want to continue doing so because of 24h availability, and the navigational aids. It's what they enjoy using and it gives them better training".
John Spooner, deputy managing director at East Midlands and a private pilot himself, agrees that provision of sophisticated navigation aids coupled with flying in a busy air-traffic environment makes for more realistic training. Manchester's Huddart disputes the suggestion that denying flying schools access to the airport would have a detrimental impact on quality of training. "I don't think that's the case. They still have to achieve certain standards, and they will not drop."
Martin Robinson, marketing and communications manager at UK Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) disagrees. He argues that denying access to training at busy airports has direct and serious safety implications.
Birmingham pressure
Birmingham's position is slightly different to that of Manchester. GA there is not now subject to slot restrictions, but, even so, private flying is under pressure, says Mike Hollick, station manager for Birmingham-based fixed-base operator Exec Air. "The airport policy seems to be that they will do nothing to encourage further development of [private flying]. If someone came along with a business aeroplane and wanted to base it at Birmingham, they would look at that on its merits," he says.
The GA community at Birmingham recently claimed a victory over airport authorities on the vexed issue of closure of its short intersecting [prevailing wind] runway to make way for proposed apron-expansion plans. "They've modified the plans-and the apron development stops short of the short runway. The airport says that it is keeping it for the foreseeable future, which is good news from the GA point of view, but the hidden reason for that is the fact that British Airways, in particular, uses it to bring its turboprops through here," claims Hollick.
Glasgow commitment
While there has been a persistent rumour that GA is being squeezed out at Glasgow, where passenger traffic has grown to over 5 million during recent years, the airport claims that nothing could be further from the truth. GA, it says, has simply been moved to its own dedicated site - proof of Glasgow's commitment to all sectors of the aviation community.
Also bucking the trend to sideline GA is Cardiff International Airport. The airport changed hands in 1995, and its new chief executive, Bill Aitkinhead, takes a broader view of GA. "General aviation is something we're very keen on. So keen, in fact, that we're looking to develop a more rigorous GA policy and looking very seriously at developing a separate GA terminal," he says. With South Wales attracting considerable inward investment, in part that is being driven by a need to improve the structure for corporate users. He adds that the small end of GA plays a "very dominant role" in the airport's overall GA picture and "-I'm very anxious to see GA's encouragement and development".
Both GAMTA and AOPA are lobbying hard for continued, but acceptable, access at major airports throughout the country. GAMTA's Forbes says: "For instance, we've recently had two meetings with Gatwick to underscore the benefits of the business-aviation side and encourage them to offer opportunity slots." He concedes: "I can see where they stand. They have a massive demand from the airlines on pre-booked slots for the summer season, so from a commercial angle it is extremely difficult to justify throwing out the opportunity of 250 passengers going through airport concessions in favour of one business jet." He adds the caveat, however, that "- we are part of the nation's transport infrastructure, perform a very useful role and we want to see that continue".
He says that a lot of people subscribe to the view that GA is on a "hiding to nothing" in attempting to maintain access to large airports in the face of commercial pressures. "They would say that we should be looking at Northolt, Farnborough and others. But the point is, you need a wide range of airports. It is customer demand that dictates where you go rather than where you fancy staying, and there is a lot of evidence to show that both Heathrow and Gatwick are still very popular with the customer.
"We have got to have a pretty assured satellite-airport infrastructure with the right communications, the right road links and all the rest of it before we can actually let go of, for instance, Heathrow/Gatwick access. The efforts made by companies like Regional Airports at Biggin Hill and Southend are all very laudable, and I think there's a great future in using those sorts of satellite aerodromes, but, until we see the demand drying up, we'll still want access to the major hubs". Forbes is pragmatic enough to realise that GA activity alone will not pay the upkeep of these smaller satellite airports. "The problem with any business-aviation aerodrome is that even if you put the entire nation's corporate-flying activity through it, that will not pay for it alone. You need a whole lot of other industry based on the airport to make it work."
GAMTA, he says, finds airports generally receptive to the position of corporate users. "It's easier on the business-aviation side because there's clear revenue from the movements and there's an interlining benefit with other airlines," he says, adding that, among regional airports particularly, the benefits of corporate aviation to the local business community are obvious. "The perennial fear is for the small private owner who wants to park his Cessna at the airport and do some flying lessons".
He concludes that the greatest problem facing the UK GA community is that, unlike other European countries - especially France, where airports are operated, supported and promoted by local chambers of commerce - the UK has no coherent central-government aerodrome policy.
Until that comes, GA will be increasingly sidelined at major airports, but will be faced with a diminishing number of alternatives from which to operate. It is a sentiment echoed by AOPA's Martin Robinson, who contends that the rate of small-aerodrome closures - which are just as much a part of the overall transport infrastructure in the UK - is a scandal which will come back to haunt the country one day.
Source: Flight International
