Aviation can help the UK become a services superpower - that is why it must sit at the heart of the Government's industrial strategy

Ken OT

On March 11 2020, the ribbon was cut on a new interactive classroom at Manchester Airport, delivered as part of our £1.3bn transformation programme.

We unveiled a plaque showcasing the logos of all the firms that had worked on it, including Space Zero, the Manchester-based design specialists who created the vision for the space. It was the perfect illustration of how private investment in infrastructure boosts local supply chains.

But that didn’t paint anywhere near the full picture of how Space Zero has been helped to get where it is today by its local airport, and the UK’s northern gateway to the world.

And where is it today? The answer to that lies in the pages of an atlas, rather than on a commemorative plaque.

That’s because the firm is a true export success story, having designed hundreds of educational spaces worldwide, from Switzerland to Singapore and Belgium to Abu Dhabi. It is one of the many Northern firms that will benefit from Manchester now having the only direct route to Shanghai outside of London, and more frequency on our existing direct service to Beijing – not to mention our 200 or so other destinations.

Up and down the country, there are hundreds of similar success stories to Space Zero. Operating in fields ranging from TV production and advanced digital to financial services and life sciences, they all have one thing in common – exporters of knowledge, skills and services, rather than “things.”

It is these sectors that will be key to turbo-charging the UK economy and realising Chancellor Rachel Reeves’ ambition to deliver the fastest growth rate in the G7.

As the Resolution Foundation rightly identified in its “Ending Stagnation” report, our country faces many economic challenges, but we absolutely have the building blocks in place to become a “services superpower.”

For example, the UK is already the second largest exporter of services in the world, behind only the US. Business travel spend has recovered faster here than in the likes of France and Spain, while Harvard University’s “Global Outgoing Knowledge Index” estimates that if all UK business travel were to stop, the entire global economy would shrink by 1%.

Researchers from WPI Economics recently looked at 10 sectors that are more reliant on air travel for their success and found they are projected to grow two percentage points faster than the rest of the economy (46% vs 44%) over the next decade.

The report, which we published, showed that represented £10.6bn of added value, underlining just how critical exportable services are to the Chancellor’s G7 target.

If it is widely accepted that the Government’s new Industrial Strategy should play to our strengths and harness the potential of exportable services, then its architects must also look at what those sectors need to grow.

As an island trading nation, we are more reliant our international air routes than other major economies and if we don’t - as a minimum - maintain current connectivity levels, that £10.6bn could be at risk.

But we need the right policy-support to deliver the connectivity these globally-ambitious firms crave, while also hitting our shared net zero target.

That means making enough Sustainable Aviation Fuel here in the UK, it means investing in high-speed rail connections between cities and airports, and it means developing regional growth strategies that recognise the importance of our links with the world’s most important markets.

Put simply, playing to our strengths means putting a sustainable growth plan for aviation at the heart of a sustainable growth plan for the UK.