Birmingham hosts airport show

The first British and Irish Airports Expo was held at the NEC Birmingham last week, filling the Pavilion Hall at the exhibition centre with 149 participating companies and 2,500 visitors over the two days of show/conference. Paul Hogan, CEO of organiser PPS Publications, said it had already established itself as the biggest airport gathering in Europe yet. 

The Expo was backed by Birmingham International Airport, CEO Paul Kehoe hosting the evening revelries at the Vox, within the Genting Hotel (see Genting Hotel Resorts World in this issue).

Two key airline figures, and major operators at Birmingham, officially opened the proceedings, with Andrew Swaffield, CEO of Monarch Group, saying the airline was buoyant despite losing 18 departures a week to Sharm el Sheikh. Turkey was 6% down. Swaffield favoured staying in Europe but in answer to a question from this publication said: “As things stand, we don’t plan to introduce any bases on the continent.”

Flybe CEO Saad Hammed accused the government of failing to have a “coherent or holistic national aviation policy or action programme.”

He pointed to “punitive” Air Passenger Duty and called on Whitehall to follow the Irish government and abolish the tax. Both speakers noted that on some routes the tax was more than the money the airline received. No stance on Brexit from either Hammed or Kehoe.

www.airports-expo.com

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