News in brief from Heathrow and the British Chambers of Commerce, OAG and MPI
Expand Heathrow or waste £30bn says UK business group
Building a third runway at Heathrow could add £30bn to the UK economy, a study by the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) has claimed.
The BCC report called Economic Impacts of Hub Airports forecasts as much as £12.8bn (€14.9bn) in increased productivity and £20bn (€23.3bn) in "wider economic benefits" such as greater employment.
The research conducted by transport consultancy Colin Buchanan reveals that each year the expansion is delayed the UK loses between £900m (€1.04bn) and £1.1bn (€1.3bn).
BCC director general David Frost said: "We must invest now to safeguard our economic future or we risk wasting £30bn (€35bn) fumbling around for an alternative."
The two main UK opposition parties, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats, have both said they would scrap the third runway plans if in power.
Mr Frost said too few people understood the economic benefits of expansion at Heathrow and called for building to begin.
The BCC represents small businesses through a UK network of local chambers of commerce.
www.britishchambers.org.uk
Airline capacity stabilising - OAG
Airline capacity fell just 1% in July year-on-year as cutbacks on routes begin to stabilise, aviation data providers OAG said.
OAG reported around 315m seats on offer this month down by 3.3m compared to the same month last year.
Capacity for June fell 2% year-on-year as the downward trend continued to slow.
Other figures showed a total of 2.55m flights scheduled in July, down 3% year-on-year.
David Beckerman, vice president OAG Market Intelligence, said the figures showed a "clear and very welcome upward trend from the dramatic declines" seen in recent months.
www.oagaviation.com
MPI launches global training centres
Meeting Professionals International (MPI) has announced the opening of three global training centres for meetings and business events.
San Diego State University, France's CERAM Business School and QMDI in Qatar are the first of fourteen training centres planned for the next two years.
The new centres are part of MPI's Global Knowledge Plan which will see it work closely with university faculties.
MPI said all three schools were widely recognised as having strong meeting and event management degree courses.
MPI's chief development officer Didier Scaillet said: "MPI recognized a need for a standardized body of knowledge that will enable meeting and event professionals to obtain globally transferable skills."
www.mpiweb.org