ON THE SOAPBOX for April brings you Tim Jeans, managing director, Monarch Airlines. Tim, whose career in aviation includes a seven year spell as number two to Michael O'Leary at Ryanair, joined Monarch from MyTravelLite in 2004. His 19 years in the air travel industry include a period as commercial director at Manchester International Airport.
Amidst all the hysteria surrounding the alleged impact of air transport on the environment driven largely by London-based media and those sources that feed them, the voice of our UK and European regions appears to have been forgotten.
The extent to which low fares and low-fare airlines have transformed the lives of a generation has I believe, been hugely under-estimated and has now been overtaken by the current wisdom that choking off the growth in air travel by putting up air fares is somehow going to be of net benefit to both the environment and our economy.
My first job in aviation was as part of the business development team at Manchester Airport in the early 1990s. At that time the biggest city outside London was linked to just a dozen European centres.
It was possible to make a day return trip to Europe to six destinations and fares started at more than ”400 ($783). Travel to visit friends or relatives or for any holiday was largely made on a charter flight, many of which departed in the middle of the night with few operating outside of the summer months. Most journeys to Europe or beyond involved a transit by road or rail to a London airport.
In smaller centres such as Newcastle or Bristol, access to Europe was provided by infrequent and expensive connections with KLM through Amsterdam and that was the only option. Discretionary travel as we know it today simply did not exist for the 50m people in these islands who did not live in or around Greater London. Airport infrastructure went unused as tumbleweed blew down the runways of cities like Liverpool, Cardiff and Southampton.
Not a single new runway has been constructed on the back of low fare travel. Low fare airlines now fly the most environmentally friendly, fuel-efficient aircraft with the highest load factors and the benefits to our regional economies have been incalculable.
The cultural diversity that is enriched by the differing characteristics of our UK and European regions, now influences the lives of countless millions who can travel freely across Europe much in the way that many of us used to envy US domestic air travel.
Many European low-fare airlines are attending French Connect next month ” a gathering of French regions who, despite the obfuscation of the French Government to all issues that might adversely impact on Air France, demonstrate an enthusiasm to embrace new opportunities brought about by low-fare access that many in this country would now turn their back on.
It is time for business and tourism leaders in our UK regions to stand up in support of the undoubted benefits low-fare travel has brought, whilst we in the industry must maintain our commitment to sustainable aviation and all the responsibilities that that entails.