Air Routes (Hansard, 25 July 2000)

§ Mr. David Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his Department's policy on varying the Cranford agreement at Heathrow to create more slots for fragile routes in the UK. [132528]

§ Mr. Mullin
My Department is currently undertaking a study into all aspects of airport capacity in South East England, having regard to future forecasts of demand. This is looking at a wide range of options: at this stage, nothing is ruled in and nothing is ruled out. However, there are currently no plans to modify the Cranford agreement.

§ Mr. David Stewart
To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement on his Department's role in the creation of public service obligations on internal UK air routes between Heathrow and fragile rural locations. [132522]

§ Mr. Mullin
The use of public service obligations (PSOs) is governed by European Regulation 2408/92. This empowers member states to impose a PSO on a route serving a peripheral or development region or on a thin route to any regional airport, where such a route is considered vital for the economic development of the region in which the airport is located, and where an adequate standard of service would not be provided by air carriers having regard solely to their commercial interest. Those standards relate to the continuity, regularity, capacity and pricing of services.
The UK Government have imposed PSOs on certain lifeline routes serving the Scottish Highlands and Islands. There are no PSOs on routes to London. A judgment in the European Court of Justice suggests that any PSO would have to be city to city, and not airport specific.