Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department has conducted an assessment of the impact on tourism of the Civil Aviation Authority’s decision to allow Heathrow Airport to increase charges to its airline customers by 50 per cent.

The Civil Aviation Authority is the independent economic regulator of Heathrow Airport and its primary duty is to further the interests of consumers. In doing so, it must also have regard to, amongst other things, the need for Heathrow Airport to be able to finance the investment necessary to keep the airport safe, secure and resilient. The Civil Aviation Authority has imposed a ‘holding’ price cap of £30.19 per passenger for 2022, which will be trued up or down once the five-year (2022-2026) regulatory settlement is finalised later this year. The setting of air fares is a commercial matter for individual airlines.