Airports gather in Manchester

ACI, Airport Council International – Europe, gathered at Manchester Central last week for its 19th annual assembly and congress.  The keynote opening speaker was supposed to be the affable Jim Fitzpatrick MP, UK Aviation Minister, but he had moved on from the time that the show programme was published.  No replacement could be found.  What a way to treat a customer (AERBT’s way of describing an industry which pays the government many billions of pounds per year).  What we did get was a discourse from Brian Simpson MEP, the socialist group spokesman at Brussels (and Strasbourg) on transport and tourism.  Mr Simpson, who represents north east England, speaks the aviation language and is knowledgeable on the subject.  Attendees heard from Raymond Benjamin, incoming General Secretary of ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organisation), a man steeped in civil aviation and a very distinguished panel discussed the lasting impact of the recession.  Stefan Schulte, of Frankfurt Airport, investment expert Hamish Mackenzie, analyst Andrew Lobbenberg and Barry Humphreys, Virgin Atlantic’s former Director of External Affairs and now Chairman of BATA (British Air Transport Association) all agreed that the industry was at the bottom and would improve.  Nobody could predict a time scale. www.aci-europe.org

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