Baroness Liz Sugg – Chair, Airlines UK, speech to 2026 Airlines UK Annual Dinner
My Lords, Ladies and gentlemen – welcome to the Airlines UK Annual Dinner 2026.
I want to firstly thank all our sponsors for making tonight possible. To our headline sponsor, Boeing; and to Advantage Travel Partnership, Lighthouse Green Fuels, Heathrow Reimagined and Collinson.
It’s great to see so many friends, colleagues, familiar and new faces here this evening.
This event keeps growing every year, a reflection of the strength of our industry and the hard work of Tim, Rob and Steve to bring the community together.
And this is a community. Despite being such a competitive sector, there is a strength of collaboration and mutual purpose amongst all areas of UK aviation, from across our airlines – both passenger and cargo, airports, manufacturers, handlers, Government, NATS and our regulator.
The whole industry underpins the UK’s status as a world-leading aviation nation, with our aviation and aerospace sectors representing a genuine, gold-standard national asset.
And this is why we meet tonight.
We think it’s important that we celebrate this success and further strengthen the relationships that will help us to do even better, for our sector, our customers and the UK as a country in need of engines for growth.
I want to welcome Keir Mather to his first Airlines UK dinner.
Minister, each aircraft based in the UK supports 400 jobs. Every two additional flights add another job into our economy. Airlines carry 40% of the value of our non-EU exports.
We should be unreservedly proud of our industry, serving a nation of dedicated travellers who prize their ability to fly.
Make no mistake – we’re all friends tonight but ours is a fiercely competitive industry, almost wholly operating in the private sector, a reality that brings great benefits to UK consumers by driving innovation, quality, choice and value for money.
Public satisfaction with our sector remains extremely high, evidenced by the latest CAA consumer survey which shows a strong recovery since the pandemic and puts customer experiences of aviation well ahead of other transport modes.
Impressive when you consider the sheer complexity of the operations we run and the value to the passenger our airlines are able to offer.
However – we all know we are living during a time of great uncertainty, economic, geopolitical, and environmental. These forces are impacting aviation, impacting our businesses and mean that we cannot rely on old assumptions or strengths.
This Government’s support for the UK’s aviation sector in these uncertain times is recognised and welcomed.
Minister, your strong support for the principle of growth and expansion, of the right of people to be able to travel, and the ability of our great businesses to deliver the changes we need to deliver growth sustainably, is welcomed by the hundreds of thousands of people who rely on aviation for their livelihoods, and the millions of people who value the ability to fly.
The Government has shown drive and commitment in taking forwards critical policies needed to strengthen the foundations underpinning our growth – not least around airspace moderninsation, airport expansion, and support for the commercialisation of sustainable aviation fuels. We recognise this takes political will and is an approach not without pushback. So thank you.
We will continue to work collaboratively with you to deliver these changes, building capacity and resilience, improving the experience for consumers whilst growing the economy and creating jobs.
We will also be candid about the realities we face.
We recognise the economic challenges facing the country. But we warn against steps that risk being self-defeating, not least placing upon aviation an unsustainable cost base, one that is forecast to increase at a faster pace than in competitor nations, a point evidenced by our new analysis on the competitiveness of the UK aviation sector.
This shows the UK falling behind the pack of international competitors, as costs rise significantly and weigh against our genuine and historic strengths.
APD will rise between 13 – 15% for most people in April and remains amongst the highest tax of its kind in the world. The cost for travellers to the UK of an ETA is to increase to £20 – double what it was a year ago, a further drag on UK competitiveness as a destination.
As we prepare for the full implementation of the EU Entry/Exit Scheme, it is vital that industry works hand in hand with government to ensure its rollout is efficient, proportionate, and protects the competitiveness of UK aviation while maintaining a seamless passenger experience.
Heathrow’s charges are already the highest of all global hubs, and these charges risk rising substantially under expansion without regulatory change and better governance to ensure value for money. Our cargo operators face a lack of capacity and restrictions on operational flexibility.
We need airports to be expanded in an affordable way for airlines and passengers, with competitive and cost-effective operations. And we should not forget that when Government talks about “private investment” of airports, in reality that means airlines and therefore their customers paying for that investment through their charges. Airport expansion will only deliver growth if the costs of operating them are kept under control.
On our pathway to net zero, airlines want to make the SAF mandate a success and recognise fully the vital role SAF must play in our decarbonisation.
It looks as if the 2% SAF supply target was met last year – a great achievement – but as the mandate ramps up and the requirement for more advanced SAF kicks in next year, the need for SAF supply to increase and be available, affordably, for UK airlines becomes ever more acute. The mandate sits with fuel suppliers, who exercise substantial market power, but the pain of non-compliance will hit airlines and ultimately travellers as costs are simply passed on.
For UK airlines, having to pay buy-out penalties – nearly £6,000 a tonne – passed onto our fuel bills by suppliers who fail to meet their responsibilities would be a policy and market failure.
We are committed to working closely with Ministers to avoid this.
We also remain concerned that airlines will not be able to account for their SAF use under the ETS and urge Ministers to continue their engagement with fuel suppliers to ensure this is resolved as quickly as possible – the deadline is looming.
Together, the risk is that these pressures act as a headwind, stopping us from reaching full speed and our potential to support UK growth.
We will continue to make the case positively for how the UK’s airline sector, as part of the UK’s wider aviation ecosystem, can leverage our strengths to take our sector to even greater heights, for the benefit of all – including the Treasury.
And so tonight, as we celebrate what this industry has achieved and look ahead to what it must still deliver, let us do so with confidence and clarity of purpose.
Aviation has always been a sector defined by ambition — by the belief that we can connect people, power prosperity and rise to challenges.
With the right partnership between industry and Government, with policies that back competitiveness alongside sustainability, and with the shared determination that defines this community, there is no reason the UK cannot remain – and thrive – as one of the world’s great aviation nations.
Minister, colleagues, friends — we stand ready to play our full part in driving growth, delivering net zero, and keeping Britain open to the world.
Thank you for your support, thank you for your partnership, and above all, thank you for everything you do to keep our country flying.
