International companies may move elsewhere if the government’s approach to airport expansion doesn’t change, said a senior figure at Continental Airlines.
Bob Schumacher, Continental’s senior director UK and Ireland, said airlines are demanding more capacity in the south east.
“That poses all sorts of thorny political questions,” he said, “but they [politicians] need to get on with it, because otherwise the carriers will just go elsewhere.”
Speaking to ABTN at World Travel Market in London, he warned carriers would not simply move their routes to regional airports.
“[The airlines] will fly over us,” said Schumacher, “and the next multinational won’t locate here because there is a better frequency of services out of Paris or Frankfurt.
“In Britain we are slowly watching this stuff go. Very few are registering it, I think. But, the heads of the carriers who are making the decisions are very aware of it.”
Schumacher also called for the government to look at how passengers make connections between rail and air.
He used the example of the number of changes a passenger travelling by rail from Heathrow to Birmingham would have to make.
“Our integrated transport policy in this country would have someone being flown into Heathrow, then taking the Heathrow Express into Paddington, then getting themselves from Paddington to Euston, then on a train from Euston to Birmingham,” he said.
“Whilst we aren’t going to start trumpeting for Heathrow expansion, we are trumpeting for a joint-up, thought-through process.
“There could be a Docklands airport for all we care. As long as there is capacity for us to grow and serve our customers, with a fully integrated transport system from wherever that airport is.”
An integrated transport policy must be “route and branch of what we do in this country”, he added, “and aviation policy can sit comfortably within that.”