Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the implications for his policies of the ACI EUROPE Airport Industry Connectivity Report 2018, published in June 2018 which reported that the UK’s direct connectivity has declined by 0.8 per cent between 2017 and 2018.

No such assessment has been made. The UK is one of the most connected countries in the world both domestically and internationally and this is testament to a thriving aviation industry. The Government believes that air passengers are best served by a commercial airline market which is able to operate in a competitive environment. This allows airlines to determine the routes that they operate, and from which airports, based on their assessment of costs and passenger demand.