I start by thanking noble Lords for their consideration of these draft regulations. I appreciate the comments that have been made and the questions that have been asked. Before I respond, I shall say a few words about the challenges that our aviation industry has been tackling and take this opportunity to pay tribute to its efforts.
At the height of the pandemic, in April 2020, passenger numbers fell by 99% compared with the same month in 2019. Only 330,000 passengers passed through airport terminals. During the summer of 2020,
passenger numbers increased as travel corridors were introduced but remained 80% below the equivalent 2019 levels. Following the introduction of the traffic light system on 17 May 2021, flight and passenger numbers rose at a steady pace between May and October 2021. In December 2021, 9.1 million passengers used UK airports but that was still 57% down on the same month in 2019.
I move on to answering the questions that were asked, if I can, in no particular order. I will start with the basic but important question asked by the noble Lord, Lord Rosser, about which UK airports we consider to be congested and which ones fall within the remit of these draft regulations. There are eight of them in the UK, including Heathrow, Gatwick, Birmingham, Bristol, London City, Stansted and Manchester. Of course, there are a lot of other airports around the UK, but they are not considered part of this.
The noble Lord, Lord Rosser, also asked about engagement; that ties in with some of the points made by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson. I have a bit to say about this. In November and December, we held a targeted, four-week consultation in which we asked airports, airlines and industry bodies for their views on alleviation measures and invited supporting evidence. This takes account of the noble Lord’s point about the 70:30 or 80:20 split. We received 48 responses from 36 carriers, seven airports and five industry bodies, which we carefully considered alongside the available data. I say “the available data” but, as I said in my opening speech, we took account of them all and decided to take a middle line. As ever, in a consultation, you have to take account of all views.
On the impact of these measures, I want to go a little further in answering a question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson. The impacts were carefully considered—the noble Baroness mentioned the Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee, which is a fair point—as they were developed. We sought feedback and evidence from across the aviation sector and an impacts note was prepared to inform the advice to Ministers following the consultation. A formal impact assessment has not been prepared for this instrument because it makes provisions that are to have effect for a period of less than 12 months. That is my understanding of how the process works, which the noble Baroness may know more about than me.
I want to say some more about ghost flights in response to a question from the noble Lord, Lord Rosser. There have been reports, particularly in the press, of up to 15,000 ghost flights; I think that is what the noble Lord was alluding to. The figures reported in one newspaper—it happened to be the Guardian—covered departing flights from 32 airports between March 2020 and September 2021. During this period, there was full alleviation of the slot usage rules in place. One of the purposes of this was to prevent airlines needing to operate environmentally damaging ghost flights during the Covid-19 pandemic. We do not hold data on why flights may have taken place but, given the financial pressure that the Covid pandemic has put on the aviation sector, I know that airlines will not have wanted to operate flights unless they had to. As well as maintenance and training, we believe that many of these passenger flights will have been for
reasons such as carrying cargo, as the noble Lord alluded to, or returning UK citizens home when Covid restrictions were introduced or changed at short notice. I am not sure that the data one can get is an exact science but I hope that that goes some way to offering a response; it is certainly as far as I can go.
2.15 pm
My noble friend Lady Foster and the noble Baroness, Lady Randerson, raised some very important and highly topical points about Russia and Russian airspace. It is too early to give a full answer on what we are doing, but I will give an overview of the aviation sanctions we have and explain the sanctions we have in place, which I hope will go part way towards being helpful. The Committee might know some of this.
UK Ministers have signed legislation bringing the existing ban on Russian aircraft under the sanctions legislation. This bans all aircraft that are Russian registered and owned, operated or chartered by persons connected with Russia or designated persons from entering UK airspace and landing in the UK effective from 5 pm on 8 March 2022. This legislation is part of an unprecedented package of sanctions that delivers the highest economic costs we have ever imposed on the Kremlin. This is a necessary act to hold the Russian Government to account for their actions in Ukraine, a sovereign democratic state.
These measures also include powers to detain Russian aircraft already at an airport and to direct them out of UK airports, as well as to ensure that anyone sanctioned by the UK can no longer register aircraft and will have any existing registrations terminated in the UK. Our actions are legitimate and proportionate as a response to Russian aggression towards Ukraine and its failure to comply with its wider international obligations. I hope the Committee would wholeheartedly agree with that.
To address the question raised by my noble friend on our aircraft flying into Asia and needing to avoid airspace, that is the gist of my point: it is too early to give a view on that, although it is quite clear that will have an effect on the length of flights and fuel consumption. It is something we will get back to the noble Baroness and the Committee on. She raises a very important point.
To go back to the regulations, overall, throughout this period, we have supported the industry not just through slot alleviation but since the start of the pandemic. We estimate that the air transport sector will have benefited from around £8 billion of government support. We have seen some new services start, both to European destinations and transatlantic. Since the international travel changes implemented on 11 February, the UK now has one of the most open and streamlined Covid-19 border regimes in the world. That is why we feel the time is right to focus on recovery and to allow the sector to move towards normal, notwithstanding what is going on in Ukraine.
To conclude, without this instrument there would be a return to the default 80:20 slot usage rule. Although the sector is recovering, we believe there is still a need
for relief to reflect lower passenger demand to avoid empty or near-empty flights, as well as to support carriers serving severely restricted markets and to protect connectivity. I hope the Committee has found this informative.