Airport taxes on the up: it will be passengers and local businesses that feel the most pain
You have to admire the polite, diplomatic decorum of Vincent Hodder, the chief executive of Leeds Bradford Airport, whose careful response to the news that his airport, like all others in this country, will face increased demands on them in taxes.
Airports are unique propositions when it comes to business; gateways to leisure and pleasure, of course, but also to international relations, opportunity and when those things align, prosperity.
Despite multiple headwinds, not least the prospect of a resurgent Doncaster Sheffield Airport vying for carriers and passengers alike, LBA has shown ambition and dogged determination when it comes to growing and improving.
And so it is understandable that leaders in the aviation sector are sounding the alarm, because the economy and this Government’s growth agenda, rely upon the prospects afforded to airports and the businesses that use them to build out their client bases.
The mood music at this juncture, on all sides, appears optimistic that more listening and perhaps an adjustment to the flight path of Government can be made if the growth ambitions set out by the Chancellor Rachel Reeves in her budget are to avoid unhelpful turbulence. If no change of direction materialises, local people in local communities, whose own supply chains feed off the region’s airports, will feel the headwinds more than most.