§ Mr. Steenasked the Minister for Trade whether any guidelines have been issued by Her Majesty's Government since May 1979 to the Civil Aviation Authority to the consideration of applications made by private airlines to compete with British Airways on major trunk routes (a) internationally and (b) within the United Kingdom; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. SproatNo guidelines have been issued by the present Government and in the Civil Aviation Act 1980 we deliberately removed the power to give guidance to the Civil Aviation Authority.
Instead, section 13(1) of the 1980 Act gave the Civil Aviation Authority the duty of publishing from time to time a statement of the policies it intends to adopt in performing its air transport licensing functions. The authority's 'Statement of Policies on Air Transport Licensing', published on 28 April 1981, sets out the policies which the authority currently follow.