Municipal enterprise : the growth and development of Manchester Airport, c1910-1978
The aim of this thesis is to investigate the growth and development of Manchester airport and the implications of municipal ownership. The main theme is the nature of municipal ownerships structures and their interaction with other institutional structures and agencies in the immediate locale and at national level, which have influenced development processes and exercised control with the UK civil air transport industry as a Whole, in terms of development policy and regulation. The implications of municipal ownership structures within this wider context are viewed from the general perspective of the process of growth and development and from the specific standpoint of their implications for the evolution of procedures for and conduct of industrial relations at Manchester Airport. In essence, the study of industrial relations forms a microcosm in which the potential problems introduced by the co-existence of municipal ownership structures alongside other ownership forms within the civil air transport industry are explored. It is argued that the pattern of growth and development at Manchester Airport has differed from that experienced at other airports situated in the provinces. Despite the potential constraints upon airport development emanating from municipal ownership, it has constituted a positive factor in promoting the growth and development of airport facilities in Manchester. In essence, municipal enterprise has proven to be an appropriate vehicle for maximising gains in an industry subject to rapid technological change and growth. Municipal ownership supporting the injection of local knowledge, drive, initiative and enthusiasm has promoted the establishment of a local agenda for development, in the absence of positive growth promoting forces deriving from agencies and institutions operating within the civil air transport industry as a whole and on the periphery of airport operation. It is further argued that the municipal ownership regime offered the flexibility of approach and adaptability of internal organisational structures essential to the changing requirements of airport development. As far as industrial relations is concerned, it is argued that the application of principles governing the conduct of industrial relations within the local Government Service to airport workers, has given co-existence, had a partially negative effect on industrial relations with the relatively large group of specialist manual workers. Whilst procedures were generally adapted to accommodate the special needs of a municipal airport undergoing a process of growth and development not experienced by its counterparts, at the end of the day, the constraints of local authority procedures and practices culminated in the rejection of a national negotiating machinery which was inherently inflexible.
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