Conservative dogma flies against facts

Manchester International Airport

The Welsh Conservatives; at the Welsh Assembly this Wednesday, will hold a debate on the current bid by the Welsh Government to purchase Cardiff International Airport. A private company would then run the airport on behalf of the Welsh Assembly, on what I take it would be a not for profit basis.

The Conservative following their long held dogma against anything in public ownership oppose the purchase. Conservative transport spokesman Byron Davies said to BBC News "I don't believe nationalisation is the way forward," [....]

"There is no current reason to believe their ownership of Cardiff airport will be anything but another financial calamity."

Although facts really don't hold up that argument, as most of the worlds best airports are in public ownership.

In 2012 in the World Airport Awards the top 5 where, with majority shareholder shown:

1. Incheon International Airport (Government of South Korea)
2. Hong Kong International Airport (Government of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region)
3. Amsterdam Schiphol Airport (Dutch Ministry of Finance)
4. Beijing Capital International Airport (Chinese Government)
5. Munich Airport (Free State of Bavaria)

And the winner of the Europe Regional Award was Hamburg Airport with the City of Hamburg being the majority shareholder.

And as we have discussed before the award winning Manchester International Airport is another good example of a public/private partnership see.. The Thursday Quiz - Regional Airports.

Also as argued by Neil Clark writing for the Guardian in December 2010 'Why we should nationalise our airports', 'the failure of BAA to deal with recent snowfalls has exposed the price we pay for having our infrastructure in private ownership.'

And the private ownership of Cardiff International Airport cant be said to be a success can it? - surely if we are to encourage international business to invest in Wales we need an international airport to be proud of, something we don't have currently, and as we know public/private run airports can be successful as proved throughout the world.

Finally some airport trivia - did you know that a major shareholder in Bristol Airport with approximately 49% is Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan.

The Thursday Quiz - Regional Airports

Whom is the largest UK-owned airport operator, serving around 24m passengers and handling half a million tonnes of air freight every year, through its ownership and operation of Manchester, East Midlands and Bournemouth airports ?

That'll be the Manchester Airports Group; privately managed on behalf the shareholders, which also includes the commercial property company, MAG Developments, which has a £350m portfolio across the three airports and is leading the £650m major Enterprise Zone development, Airport City, at Manchester. This year their profits was £65.5m

And who are the owners of the Manchester Airports Group?

They would be the ten local authorities of Greater Manchester. As follows:

• The Council of the City of Manchester - 55%
• The Borough Council of Bolton - 5%
• The Borough Council of Bury - 5%
• The Oldham Borough Council - 5%
• The Rochdale Borough Council - 5%
• The Council of the City of Salford - 5%
• The Metropolitan Borough Council of Stockport - 5%
• The Tameside Metropolitan Borough Council - 5%
• The Trafford Borough Council - 5%
• The Wigan Borough Council - 5%

Sound like a good model on how to run a regional private/public partnership airport to me, forming part of a regional development plan.....you know a good example of something that does work, rather than political rhetoric.