Travel and tourism will not get the support the Conservatives have lent the industry in the past and there will be no increase in airport capacity for years to come.
These were the stark words of London City Airport chief executive Richard Gooding as he addressed the Institute of Travel and Tourism conference in Benidorm today.
Gooding said that with the new coalition government in place a new era of politics had been ushered in where severe public sector cuts and looming high unemployment would mean the cabinet would be far less likely to concern itself with helping the travel industry.
He said the family holiday would be imperilled by the austere times ahead and that instead of helping the industry, the exchequor was instead rubbing its hands in anticipation of a 4% increase in tax revenues from the airlines over the next four to five years.
He added that the proposals for a per plane levy to replace APD would be beneficial for the low cost carriers and charter airlines who operated with higher load factors but would hit traditional carriers with lower load factors hard.
As for increasing airport capacity in the UK, Gooding predicted nothing would happen to improve the situation and that in seven to ten years’ time, as space was squeezed on the UK’s runways, airlines would start to use European hubs more.
There was a suggestion that the current British Airways/Iberia merger might indicate that BA was looking for a new hub in Madrid.
However, Gooding added that the merger was by no means a done deal anyway as BA had yet to sort out a pension deficit issue.
