Aviation communities

sir – The collapse of the aviation industry during this pandemic is resulting in lower economic output for the whole country. Colossal damage is being done to thousands of businesses that, directly or indirectly, rely on it.

The decline of the industry will diminish Britain’s ability to trade with the world, which is the foundation of economic recovery. Regional airports will struggle to survive, choking regional economies.

However, the forgotten casualties are the hundreds of thousands of people whose livelihoods depend on the aviation industry, from Heathrow and Gatwick to Birmingham, Derbyshire and Manchester.

Work by Oxford Economics suggests that the cost to the local economy of reduced operations at Heathrow will be £4 billion, with direct job losses of about 28,000 – 31 per cent of the pre-pandemic total – by the end of 2021. The International Air Transport Association has looked at the wider impact of the collapse of air traffic, and calculated a potential loss of 733,000 jobs and £51.4 billion in GDP across the British economy by the end of 2021.

The Government must take urgent action to support the UK’S aviation communities. As a first step, it should establish an aviation communities fund for targeted investment in training, reskilling, low-carbon jobs and local infrastructure, supporting a wider recovery to enable Britain to build back better – and greener.

The aviation industry is being torn apart by the pandemic; we cannot allow the same fate to befall the local communities that rely on it. The Government should follow its own maxim that a stitch in time saves nine. Cllr Steve Curran (Lab)

Leader, Hounslow Council

Seema Malhotra MP (Lab)

Cllr Stephen Cowan (Lab)

Leader, Hammersmith and Fulham Council

Cllr Barry Lewis (Con)

Leader, Derbyshire County Council

Bob Blackman MP (Con)

Kate Nicholls

Chair, UK Hospitality

Tracy Aust

Chair, West London Principals and 20 others; see telegraph.co.uk