Welsh Assembly guilty of ‘un-businesslike’ approach says airport executive
Dec 10 2008 by Tomos Livingstone, Western Mail
THE Assembly Government has been guilty of an “un-businesslike” approach, an executive at Cardiff International Airport said yesterday.
Steve Hodgetts, the airport’s director of business development, said the devolved administrations in Edinburgh and Belfast had been quicker to offer support to their regional airports. Devolved governments can give short-term financial support for new air routes, known as Route Development Funds (RDFs).
Mr Hodgetts told MPs on the Welsh Affairs Committee: “We have a good working relationship with WAG but we do find that their approach can be somewhat delayed and un-businesslike at times. The late arrival of the Route Development Fund meant that it came in post changes to the EU rules, when a lot of the benefit and flexibility that Scotland and Northern Ireland had enjoyed had actually dissipated. So that sort of hamstrung the ability of the RDF to work. We see far more evidence of support from tourism bodies...the Visit Wales equivalents elsewhere in the UK and European regions, and we would like to see the Welsh Assembly Government emulate the best practices we see elsewhere.”
He said he supported WAG’s aims of improving air connections to Wales to boost economic development, but he added: “If that objective is to be achieved...then there will need to be support to defray the impact of market conditions.”
Discussions were ongoing to attract German airlines to fly new routes into Cardiff, he said, with Germany identified as a large potential tourism and business market for Wales.
Aviation expert Martin Evans, from the University of Glamorgan, told the MPs: “Some of the English regions that have equally poor demographics as Wales have been successful in attracting new airlines and new routes, particularly Newcastle. They have done this by focusing on in-bound passengers rather than out-bound passengers. That message can only be put out by the government, saying come and visit Wales, this is somewhere to do business, for tourism opportunities. The way Cardiff can try to compete is only if the WAG throws itself wholeheartedly into a partnership with the airport.”
An Assembly Government spokesman said: “The Welsh Assembly Government is keen to exploit the potential of air services which can improve accessibility, open up new markets, encourage inward investment and provide a focal point for clusters of business development. Officials are working with Cardiff International Airport to develop a strategy to target both freight and international travel.”