Aviation Strategy

Written evidence from Assurity Consulting (AS 36)

1. Assurity Consulting is an independent workplace compliance consultancy specialising in health, safety and environmental solutions. We provide services to large corporate companies, property management companies, charities, independent schools, universities and colleges, both nationally and internationally. We employ 70 people at our offices in Horsham, West Sussex, which is within the Gatwick Diamond business area.

2. As a company that uses all forms of transport to travel to our customer’s sites we need sufficient aviation capacity along with a fair tax regime to ensure we remain competitive both nationally and internationally. Many of our corporate customers are moving to single suppliers to support them across Europe, Middle East and Africa. To ensure we are able to compete for this work we need to be able to demonstrate an efficient and cost effective service. With the uncertainty over UK aviation strategy and the cost of Air Passenger Duty, this is becoming increasingly difficult to achieve.

3. As an example of the additional cost we have to recover when quoting for work, which involves air travel, our company paid £3,300 in Air Passenger Duties on 214 flights during the last year (October 2011 – September 2012). This equates to 11% of the total cost of the flights. This means we have to add 11% of the flight cost to all our quotes to recover the cost of this Duty. This makes us less competitive when quoting for work, which involves air travel. Alternatively, we can absorb this cost, which means we have less profit to re-invest in our company. Therefore, we would like to see Air Passenger Duty reduced or better still scrapped.

4. As we are based in West Sussex our local airport is London Gatwick. We prefer to use this airport for air travel as it allows us to reduce our travel time, cost and carbon emissions. At the current time, it only has one runway, which reduces the number of flights that can take off and land at times convenient for business travelers, i.e. early morning and early evening. Therefore we would like serious consideration to be given to installing a second runway at London Gatwick Airport, so it can better service the needs of companies based in the Gatwick Diamond business area.

5. Finally, the surface access to London Gatwick Airport relies on a ‘free-flowing’ M23. When this road is blocked or restricted by road works, severe congestion quickly occurs, which can result in our employees missing their flights. An alternative route to London Gatwick Airport should be considered, which is of an equal standard or better to the existing motorway. This will help ease congestion and will also allow for the growth in traffic that will occur if a second runway is installed.

I hope these items will be included in the Transport Committee’s inquiry into aviation capacity in the UK and the Governments aviation strategy.

18 October 2012