§ Mr. MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions, pursuant to his 447W answer of 4 April 2000, Official Report, columns 427-28W, concerning airport slots, which airports other than Heathrow are within the jurisdiction of ACL Ltd; to whom ACL is accountable for its operation of the EC Regulation; who pays the company; and if details of (a) ACL's contract and (b) the fees paid are available for public inspection. [118868]
§ Mr. MullinIn addition to Heathrow, ACL has been appointed as co-ordinator under the EC Regulation for Gatwick, Stansted and Manchester airports. The company also acts on a non-statutory basis for Aberdeen, Birmingham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Jersey, London City, London Luton, and Newcastle airports.
ACL's contract is with the airport operators; it is therefore in the first instance accountable to the airport. At the four fully co-ordinated airports, grievances could also be taken to the airport co-ordination committee, on which the airport operators, air carriers and air traffic control providers are represented. In addition, the Airport Slots Allocation Regulations 1993 place a statutory duty on airport co-ordinators to operate in accordance with the EC Regulation; their actions are challengeable in court. The Secretary of State has the power to withdraw his approval of the appointment of a co-ordinator if satisfied that the co-ordinator has acted other than in an independent manner.
75 per cent. of ACL's income comes from the fees that it charges to the airports where it acts as co-ordinator. About 21 per cent. comes from the 11 UK airlines that own the company, and the remainder from data sales, training and consultancy, and similar activity.
ACL's contracts are commercially sensitive and not available for public inspection. Its Annual Report and Accounts are available for inspection at Companies House.