APPENDIX 7
Memorandum submitted by InterTradeIreland
InterTradeIreland appreciates the invitation
to respond to a request for evidence by the Northern Ireland Affairs
Committee. We welcome the inquiry, led by the SubCommittee, into
air transport services in Northern Ireland. InterTradeIreland
agrees that air transport is of growing importance to future economic
development and can be a key catalyst for economic growth. Although
transport infrastructure is not an area which comes within our
current legislative remit, we welcome the opportunity to raise
some issues which we believe have an important "all-island"
dimension and we commend the Committee's foresight in recognising
the cross-border dimension to this important subject.
InterTradeIreland's strategic mission is to
enhance the global competitiveness of the all-island economy particularly
through the development of collaborative, knowledge intensive
all-island trade and business development networks.
In 2003 InterTradeIreland published a report—Developing
All-Island Air Services on the Island of Ireland. The report
was carried out with the cooperation of an advisory committee
comprising representatives from the air transport industry drawn
from both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. The report
highlighted the then limited availability of cross-border air
services within the island of Ireland as a significant gap in
the range of transport facilities of vital importance to cross-border
business development. The report identified three new cross-border
routes that had demand potential, depending upon timings and frequency,
for point to point and interlining traffic. These were: Belfast-Dublin,
Belfast-Cork and Belfast-Shannon. The potential for interlining
at Dublin relates not only to international travel to mainland
Europe and North America but also to "mini-hubbing"
within the island. Subsequent to the launch of the report, services
on two of these routes were introduced, Belfast-Dublin and Belfast-Cork.
The Belfast-Dublin service was withdrawn, prematurely in our view,
but the Belfast-Cork service is enjoying a high load factor.
Given the two Governments' commitment to developing
cross-border trade and business development on this island, InterTradeIreland
would encourage a joint "island dimension" to be recognised
when responding to important international issues such as the
European Commission's proposals for a Single European Skies policy
and also the proposals for an EU/US open skies agreement. Taken
in this context the reference to "cross-border leakages"
in the UK White Paper on the Future of Air Transport (chapter
7 on Northern Ireland) is perhaps archaic. We do however support
the conclusion contained in this paper that the City of Derry
Airport is important to the development of the wider North West
economy.
Finally, with regard to the implications on
the island of the Open Skies proposals, InterTradeIreland is aware
of an ongoing study commissioned by the Chambers of Commerce of
Ireland which is investigating the effects of the EU Open Skies
Policy on Ireland's airports, airlines and consumers. We are informed
that this study is taking an all-island perspective and will be
published in November.
30 September 2004
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