Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he received representations from representatives of industry on continuing the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme beyond January 2022.

We have received a large number of representations on a variety of issues from industry, all which are considered carefully.

Since the start of the pandemic, DfT estimates that the air transport sector (airlines, airport and related services) have benefitted from around £8bn of support, including grant awards made by the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme.

Since the UK became the first major economy in the world to remove all COVID-19 travel rules for anyone entering the UK on 18 March, now is the right time to start looking ahead to the future. We continue to take a flexible approach and keep all impacts and policies under review.