RABA Group submits regional aviation Brexit strategy to Government

RABA Group submits regional aviation Brexit strategy to Government.

The Regional and Business Airports Group have submitted a policy agendum to Government which sets out measures we believe will enable smaller airports across the UK to respond positively to Brexit.

RABA believe the Brexit transition will have a significant short-medium term negative impact on regional airports and this package of measures aims to help manage this.

The overall aim of these strategies is to:

• Reduce operating cost base – especially where this is a product of disproportionate regulatory imposition.
• Optimise use by passengers with local origins and destinations by improving connectivity, especially to hub airports.
• Diversify aeronautical and non-aeronautical income streams so that there is less dependence on volatile passenger volumes.
• Exploit land and property assets so that these can provide a stronger baseline income as well as generating local economic benefits.

With these aims in mind RABA have developed a ‘Ten Point Plan’, under five Measure headings, as the pre-requisite to creating the right policy and regulatory environment for the important smaller airport sector in the UK to thrive, during Brexit and beyond. Those headings are:

• Political Measures
• Strategic Policy Measures
• Regulatory Measures
• Fiscal Measures
• Other Measures.

RABA see a range of opportunities that Brexit, depending on the form it takes, could offer smaller airports in the long term, but the ability to exploit those opportunities and stimulate substantial wider economic benefits is heavily dependent on the short and long term policies that Government adopts in the coming months.