Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 16 September 2020
We do not underestimate the international impact that Covid-19 has had on the aviation industry, nor do we underestimate the importance of that sector to our economy and the challenges that are ahead in helping it to recover.
In March, as Covid-19 spread around the world, airlines that provide our global connectivity for business, leisure and tourism experienced a sudden and dramatic collapse in demand. Quite simply, people stopped travelling and people stopped booking travel for future dates. Travel restrictions around the world meant that the number of aircraft that were operating globally was only about one third of the total available. The impact of that rippled through from airlines to airports, ground handling companies, airport retail, fuel suppliers and the many other companies that make up the aviation sector. That has led to significant job losses and more families facing the threat of redundancy as we approach what will be a challenging winter for the industry.
Over the past few months, the Scottish Government has worked with the aviation sector to provide support where it can. However, I want to impress on the Parliament that the single most impactful action to maintain jobs and put the industry in a position where it can support our economic recovery from Covid-19 would be for the UK Government to intervene to offer short-term financial relief through the coming winter months. We have repeatedly called on the UK Government to extent the job retention scheme for the industry, or to deliver a targeted alternative. I wrote again to the chancellor this week, asking him to make that critical intervention. [Interruption.] I will allow an intervention later, but I want to make progress first.
Over the past six months, we have maintained a dialogue with the Scottish aviation sector and the Scottish Trades Union Congress to discuss short-term measures that we can take with the powers that are available to us, and the long-term support with which we can help the sector return to growth. Those discussions have been very constructive and, by use of the powers available to us, specific actions have been delivered or are under way.
As part of our £2.3 billion package of business support, we have provided business rates relief in 2020-21. That measure, which is not replicated in England and Wales, benefits all Scotland’s airports, ground handling companies and Loganair.
Airports have asked us to engage with them on options for testing passengers arriving from overseas, and we are already doing so. We recognise the effect that quarantine restrictions have, in Scotland and elsewhere, on the propensity to travel and on airlines’ decisions about which routes to operate. However, we are also clear that we have to mitigate the risk of importing Covid-19 cases, and the current 14-day self-isolation requirement is the most effective way to do that.