In a recent article in Business Travel News, Neil Pakey, Chairman of the Regional and Business Airports Group talks about levelling the commercial playing field for the UK’s smaller airports.

HubLAB, the Heathrow Connectivity Conference, has been created in joint venture between anna.aero and the 40-airport Regional and Business Airports Group (RABA) to provide an intensive examination of new route propositions for an expanded Heathrow, including the planned new runway.

Regional and Business Airports Group member, Doncaster Sheffield Airport in Yorkshire, has unveiled an ambitious masterplan to become a major international transport hub with its own East Coast Mainline railway station and the capacity to provide air travel to more than 25 million people. Bosses at the Airport have published a masterplan document in which they lay out plans to ...

George Best Belfast City Airport, a member of the Regional and Business Airports (RABA) Group, has once again been nominated for one of the world’s most prestigious aviation marketing awards – and completed an impressive awards shortlisting hat-trick in the process.

From 4 May Regional and Business Airports Group member, London Southend, will launch three new routes to the Mediterranean with Air Malta.

Michelle Carter and Tessa Darley of Innovate UK, the UK Government’s innovation agency to accelerate economic growth by stimulating and supporting business-led innovation, were in Inverness recently with a broad brief to seek out new ideas and solutions within Aviation.  The workshop (the last of 5 across the UK) was held on the 18^th January and focused on scoping out ideas that might be of interest in the future for the industry.

An All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on General Aviation has been recently formed in the UK.  Such cross party committees are formed to address pressing issues, ideally in a non-partisan manner.

The APPG believe that, over a period of decades, successive governments have failed to fully appreciate the critical role that General Aviation plays in promoting UK plc.

Europe wide reflections on needs of Regional Airports

German MEP Ismail Ertug hosted a lunchtime stakeholder debate on 10 January at the European parliament in Brussels, part of a series of discussions informing consideration of the ‘Aviation Package’ from the Perspective of: Regional Aerodromes / Airlines, General + Business Aviation.

In a recent report into which of the UK’s main airports could suffer the largest impact to their networks if the UK were to lose its access to the European Single Aviation Market, the airports currently at risk of losing the most traffic were found to be those with a heavy reliance on non-UK owned LCCs such as Ryanair or Wizz Air. This would put airports like London Stansted, Liverpool, East Midlands and London Luton in the firing line, since they have the highest dependence on EU services as a proportion of their total capacity, with significant seat numbers operated by non-UK based LCCs. 

George Best Belfast City Airport, a member of the Regional and Business Airports Group (RABA), has announced a £15 million infrastructure investment that will include a major upgrade of its departure lounge, incorporating its retail, food and beverage offering.