Aviation 2050 Strategy – Consultation response

05 July 2019

In its draft strategy on the future of UK aviation the Government made a proposal to extend the remit of Transport Focus to act as a representative body for air passengers.

This paper sets out the response of Transport Focus to this proposal, submitted as part of the consultation process run by the Department for Transport on the draft strategy.  It focuses on the principles of passenger representation – using recent research as a guide to where Transport Focus could add value and to ensure passenger representation is built into any reform of the aviation, whatever shape or form this ends up taking.

This consultation response confirms that, when it comes to representing air passengers, Transport Focus can offer:

• An independent consumer voice with multi modal expertise
• A collaborative approach with stakeholders to ensure maximum impact on decision makers
• Perspective informed by experience of working for bus, coach, and tram passengers for over a decade, and for road users since 2015
• An evidence-based approach that will enable an effective, useful start in a new sector (and could inform the White paper and subsequent policy)