MPs raise concerns over draft aviation bill
20.01.12
Proposed changes to aviation regulation must not jeopardise security or harm small airports' viability, a committee of MPs have said. The changes being considered should also include improving immigration and baggage-handling at airports, a report by the Commons Transport Committee said. The report claims that a requirement for air transport providers to publish consumer and environmental information could ‘create bureaucracy and additional costs to the aviation industry’.
The committee's report examined the Government's Draft Civil Aviation Bill, which includes plans to transfer responsibility for regulating aviation security from the Department for Transport to the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA). The committee said there was a danger that the aviation industry would incur the additional costs of security regulation but not benefit from any savings made, which would disproportionately affect smaller airports..
Committee chairman Louise Ellman, Labour MP for Liverpool Riverside, said: ‘Reform of the way that airports are regulated is needed. It is important, however, that changes made in this area deliver real benefits for passengers. Reforms must not push up costs for the aviation industry, particularly for the smaller regional airports, which are finding the present economic conditions challenging.'
‘We also believe that if the Government is serious about improving the passenger experience, it should extend new information requirements to the UK Borders Agency. Ministers need to provide greater clarity about how retaining security policy within government but passing operational delivery to the CAA will not jeopardise security standards at UK airports.’
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