Minutes of the External Advisory Group, 2 July 2009

Attendees: Jonathan Moor (Chair) - DfT, Anna Mahoney – Strategic Aviation Special Interest Group, Jeremy Hotchkiss – DfT, Danny Pedri - DHL, John Parkinson - DfT, Eddie Redfern - Charter Airline Group, Lucy Gordon – DfT, Jonathan Bailey - Manchester Airport Group, XXX XXXX – DfT, Keith Thomas - Welsh Assembly, Miriam Lea – DfT, Keith Walsh - Northern Ireland, Sarah Weston – DfT, Ken Crawford - Scottish Executive, Carolyn Green - DfT, Luke Law – Airport Operators Association, Alison Munro – HS2, Mike Carrivick – BAR-UK, Dean Dyer – HS2, Nic Ferriday – Friends of the Earth, Nigel Milton – Virgin Atlantic, Rita Burns – BA, Simon Evans – Air Transport Users Council, Steve Ronald – British Airways,Tim Johnson – Aviation & Environment Federation

Apologies: Roger Wiltshire – British Air Transport Association, Duncan Kay – SDC, Matthew Farrow CBI, David Hart - DfT

1. Welcome and Introduction

Jonathan Moor, Director of Aviation, welcomed everyone to the fifteenth meeting of the External Advisory Group (EAG), including David Stewart from IATA, a guest of BAR-UK who had a specific interest in the High Speed 2 presentation to follow, and Jeremy Hotchkiss, the new DfT Head of Aviation Environmental Division. Jonathan also introduced Alison Munro and Dean Dyer from High Speed 2.

2. High Speed 2 (HS2)

Alison Munro, Chief Executive of HS2, gave an overview of HS2’s objectives and scope, an update on progress to date, stakeholder engagement plans, and the route options being considered. The next steps for HS2 were outlined and included:

• Further assessment of the short-listed West Midlands and London stations and interchange options including model runs, and development of route options between London and the West Midlands
• Testing options for fares and service patterns, and use of released capacity
• Assessment of demand for access to Heathrow and for services to Europe
• Further development of the longer term strategy beyond the West Midlands
• Starting to think about a consultation strategy for 2010.

The longer term strategy and route plan report was scheduled for December 2009 to enable the Government to take a decision on the way forward.

EAG members raised several questions covering a range of topics: the funding arrangements for HS2, given the current economic climate; the possibility of underground construction; the prioritisation of the proposed routes (if there was any preference between a central London or London Heathrow station); air/rail complementarity and substitution; impacts on the regions; securing powers for the construction of HS2; and links to HS1. Alison explained that funding would be a key consideration in developing the business case for HS2 and would be covered in HS2’s report to the Secretary of State at the end of the year; she also explained that underground proposals would have a higher cost implication. Dean Dyer confirmed that HS2’s primary focus was the London to West Midlands route, and a London-Heathrow station was one of the options under consideration. Dean also explained that connecting HS2 with HS1 was part of HS2’s remit, but although HS2 would examine funding and delivery options as part of its final report, determining the approach to appropriate securing powers was not within the company’s remit and was a matter for the Department.

3.   Update on Progress

Jonathan Moor confirmed that no comments on the minutes of the March meeting had been received, so these were now agreed and would be made available on the DfT website. Jonathan also explained the responsibilities of the new DfT ministerial team following the recent reshuffle.

John Parkinson, DfT Head of Airports Policy, provided an update on key airports policy developments since the last meeting.  These included:

• taking forward the Heathrow decisions announced in January 2009. The DfT had set up a Heathrow Delivery Project Board to co-ordinate work within the Department to implement the Government’s decisions e.g. work on surface access issues;
• the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government’s 15 June announcement that he did not intend to set a start date for the Stansted G2 Planning Inquiry until the outcome of BAA’s appeal to the Competition Appeal Tribunal against the Competition Commission’s findings was known (which was expected to be at least six months);
• the further consultation on whether London City Airport should be designated as coordinated under the EC Directive and UK Regulations on airport slot allocation – the Secretary of State’s decision was expected later in July;
• the Aviation Fuel Task Group’s continued monitoring of industry’s progress in addressing the potential for FAME (Fatty Acid Methyl Ester) presence in jet fuel used by civil airlines;
• the establishment by the DfT of the London Olympics and Paralympics Aviation Steering Group (LOPASG) which had recently held a stakeholder event looking at the challenges for aviation posed by the Games as part of the DfT’s preparations for the London Olympics. Mike Carrivick thanked the DfT for organising the event and for putting in hand preparations to plan for the aviation aspects of the Olympics;
• the Future Airspace Strategy which was being led by the CAA, working with the DfT and other relevant parties. This strategy would set out a framework to 2030 to deliver safety, efficiency, capacity and environmental benefits for UK airspace;
• progress on the first phase of the evaluation of the Air Transport White Paper. John thanked EAG members who had been involved in this research study and explained that the results would be presented at the next meeting;
• ongoing work to prepare secondary legislation to implement the 2008 Planning Act. John explained that a National Policy Statement on Airports was expected to be published in draft by 2011. It would be based on the Air Transport White Paper (ATWP), but as the Planning Act applied to England only, the NPS would cover English airports only and focus on nationally significant airport infrastructure. The DfT intended to publish the next progress report on the ATWP at the same time as the NPS.

John also briefly mentioned two recent adjournment debates. One debate, ’The Future of Heathrow Airport Expansion’, was led by Adam Afriye MP whose opening speech outlined the opposition of certain business interests to the proposed expansion. During the debate, Paul Clark, Minister for Aviation, confirmed the Government’s policy on Heathrow (the full debate can be viewed here). A second debate, ‘Regional Aviation Policy’, was led by Phil Wilson MP who opened by stressing the importance of regional airports to regional economic development, particularly in terms of freight transport and business connectivity (the full debate can be viewed here). John also mentioned that the final evidence session of the Transport Select Committee (TSC) inquiry on the “Use of Airspace” had taken place and its report was anticipated before the summer recess; and the Secretary of State for Transport was due to give evidence to the TSC’s Future of Aviation inquiry on the 15 July.

John concluded by referring to recent media reports that the DfT maintained a database containing the details of individuals opposed to airport expansion; these reports seemed to be based on a misinterpretation of risk registers disclosed by the DfT under the Freedom of Information Act and were totally erroneous.

Moving on to aviation environmental issues, Jeremy Hotchkiss provided a progress update on implementation of the EU Directive to include aviation in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS). He explained that the DfT would be increasing its efforts to engage with stakeholders and raise awareness of the ETS, and he welcomed EAG’s views, particularly those members representing airlines, on how this exercise could best be pitched. More widely, the DfT remained focussed on preparing for Copenhagen and the Government had recently published ‘The Road to Copenhagen’, setting out what the UK is pushing for in December.

Goals for fuel efficiency had been agreed at the last meeting of the Group on International Aviation and Climate Change (GIACC), which was a positive first step. Jeremy also reported that consultation by airports on noise action plans was ongoing. EAG members requested further information on the process for approving noise action plans once they had been submitted to DfT and how individual noise action plans would be consolidated into a national noise action plan. Jeremy agreed to provide additional information after the meeting and consider a presentation on this topic at a future meeting. Tim Johnson, AEF, also commented that it remained unclear how the revenues from EU ETS would be distributed (whether they would be kept by the UK or distributed centrally by the EU). Ken Crawford, Scottish Executive, reported that the Scottish Climate Change Bill had very recently been passed. It included a target to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 (42% by 2020), and it covered emissions from domestic and international aviation and shipping.

Jonathan Moor then provided an update on industry and passenger issues. He explained that the sale of Gatwick airport was ongoing and a commercial matter for BAA; the text of the EU-Canada Air Services Agreement had recently been agreed in principle, and UK bilaterals had been signed with Iraq (with a proviso that the necessary security arrangements at their airports were completed) and Georgia; and the Secretary of State was expected to make a decision on the ATOL Protection Contribution increase by the end of July. EAG members requested clarification of the EU–Canada agreement with regard to cabotage and environmental considerations, and Jonathan agreed to follow this up after the meeting. Mike Carrivick, BAR-UK, reiterated that the aviation industry was strongly opposed to the forthcoming increases in Air Passenger Duty and would be actively lobbying against them. Other industry representatives agreed.

Jonathan went on to update EAG on the following aviation regulatory issues: the Government was due to publish its response to the Competition Commission’s final report on its market investigation into BAA in July; the Department had consulted on proposals for reforming the economic regulatory regime for UK airports and the Government was planning to publish its decisions later this year; and the Department was intending to consult on other proposals for the Civil Aviation (Regulation) Framework by the end of the year. Jonathan reminded the Group that Lara Sherwin, joint Head of Aviation Regulation and Consumer Policy (DfT), had presented outline proposals for the consultation at the last EAG meeting and comments from the EAG were still welcome.

4. End–to–End Air Passenger Experience

Carolyn Green, Strategy Development Manager in DfT’s International Networks team, presented an overview of the Department’s recent end-to-end journey analyses. Carolyn explained that examining the journey of passengers and freight from the whole journey perspective enabled the identification of pinch points and the prioritisation of policy interventions that facilitated end–to–end journeys and promoted low carbon options. The Department had worked with industry stakeholders to publish a suite of analyses that considered end-to-end journeys through UK international networks including five strategic airports (Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Manchester and Luton), as well as three key freight commodities including air freight. On the basis of these analyses, the Department would now be focussing on:

• looking for opportunities to alleviate any barriers to trade in order to facilitate economic recovery and improve UK competitiveness;
• identifying initiatives to improve the passenger experience, particularly “softer” measures;
• improvements to interchanges between transport modes – enhancing the passenger experience and encouraging use of public transport.

EAG members generally welcomed the end-to-end journey approach as a positive development in the Department’s transport strategy. They made a few specific comments, including whether it would be possible to cover the final stage of the journey from the airport to the final destination. They also asked how the impacts of the end-to-end approach would be assessed, and whether there was potential to look at factors other than the economy. Carolyn thought that a full end-to-end analysis would be interesting and could be considered for future work, but might have significant resource implications.  She also confirmed that the International Networks team was now focusing on priorities for taking forward the end-to-end work including how to integrate other factors, e.g. the environment.

5. AOB

Jonathan Moor confirmed that the next EAG meeting would take place on 19 November 2009 and that the agenda would include feedback on the results of the first stage of the Air Transport White Paper evaluation. Jonathan welcomed contributions from members for future agenda items and asked the Group to provide Sarah Weston with any suggestions for the next meeting.

Airports Policy Division, August 2009, amended December 2009.