Cardiff Airport (Hansard, 1 November 1993)

§ 1. Mr. Denzil Davies
To ask the Secretary of State for Wales when he next intends to use Cardiff Wales airport in the course of his ministerial duties.

§ The Secretary of State for Wales (Mr. John Redwood)
I last used Cardiff Wales airport on 8 September. I have no current plans to use it in the near future, but I will use it whenever my ministerial duties so require. I and my hon. Friends are keen to promote it as a good airport, and to see it as an important part of the south Wales economy.

§ Mr. Davies
Is the Secretary of State aware that the services to Europe, and in particular to Germany, from Cardiff Wales airport are abysmal? Manufacturing firms in my constituency and throughout south Wales, increasingly 2 require to get their executives and technicians to places such as Frankfurt and Dusseldorf and back in a day. That cannot be done at present. Will the Secretary of State spend his Department's time and resources to establish a daily return flight, five days a week, from Cardiff to Frankfurt?

§ Mr. Redwood
I am very keen to promote Cardiff Wales airport. I shall organise a meeting with business users and airlines to bring them together and to get more business through the airport. My hon. Friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State was recently on the inaugural flight of the new service to Manchester. The Cardiff Wales airport needs more publicity and the right hon. Gentleman might think it a good idea to use the airport as neutral ground on which the Labour party ladies can get together and settle their differences. That would be newsworthy and promote the airport.

§ Mr. Sweeney
Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating Cardiff Wales airport on its profits last year? Bearing in mind that those profits represent a return of only 1 per cent. on capital for the taxpayer, does my right hon. Friend agree that now is the time to consider privatising Cardiff Wales airport?

§ Mr. Redwood
As my hon. Friend says, things have been moving in the right direction. I was pleased that the number of passengers using the airport increased by 50 per cent. last year to 900,000 and that the airport is in the black. We will look at all the options for the future of the airport. Anything that will increase business and make the airport a better asset for the people of south Wales will be high on my agenda.

§ Mr. Rogers
The Secretary of State will realise, or will have been informed, that Cardiff Wales airport was set up by a consortium of local authorities, and funded and paid for by the people of south Wales, not by Her Majesty's Government. Is not the proposition that the airport might be privatised another example of the Secretary of State's skulduggery and thuggery whenever he embarks on privatisation? He has no right to privatise an asset that does not belong to the Welsh Office. The airport belongs to the 3 people of south Wales, who have invested money in it over many years, and there is a great deal of anger about the proposition to steal private property yet again.

§ Mr. Redwood
Were we to decide to privatise the airport, the money would not be lost to the people of Wales. The hon. Gentleman might learn something of value were he to look at the great success that other airports in the United Kingdom have had since being privatised. Privatisation is an option at the moment, not a confirmed policy. I intend to consult and think about it before announcing such a policy.

§ Mr. Richards
When my right hon. Friend uses Cardiff Wales airport, will he take great care to avoid the harridans who have a tendency to prey on the right hon. Member for Llanelli (Mr. Davies)?

§ Mr. Redwood
I will, indeed, try to avoid those harridans. My hon. Friend has raised an interesting point about the in-fighting in the Welsh Labour party among its female members. I am delighted to note that the hon. Member for Caerphilly (Mr. Davies), who is sitting on the Opposition Front Bench, has been a beneficiary of the strange voting practices and received a better vote this year. I think that he owes that to the Welsh Labour party ladies.

§ Mr. Morgan
Does the Secretary of State agree that Cardiff Wales airport is a successful and profitable enterprise, which is a credit to its municipal parents, the three county councils of Glamorgan? Would he also like to reassure the employees at that airport that he does not propose to place it in the hands of one of those funny-money residuary bodies run by the usual Tory placemen from central casting and Central Office? Their action, in making a forced sale of that airport, would undoubtedly cost many millions of pounds in lower receipts to the Glamorgan ratepayers who set up that airport.

§ Mr. Redwood
I shall look at all the options for the future of that airport with the single question in mind as to what would be best for the south Wales economy. I agree with the Opposition that the airport is important to that economy. We need to increase services out of the airport in order to service the business community and other passengers. That would be my intention and there are a number of ways in which that may be pursued. My immediate task is to try to win more business for the airport in the way that I have already described.