Northpoint, from the outset, has been interested in marrying academic expertise up with consultancy work and impacting in applied aviation settings.  Associates Basil O’Fee and Dr Rico Merkert are following up some research in 2011 on PSOs from  the sponsoring  transport authority’s perspective.  This research was published as ‘Efficient procurement of public air services – Lessons learned from European transport authorities’ perspectives’ in Transport Policy (June 2013).

The pair also undertook some research on PSOs from an air operator’s perspective.   Their paper was presented at the Air Transport Research Society World Conference, Bordeaux, France, July 17-20, 2014.

In July 2017 Chris Cain and Basil O’Fee attended the annual Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) conference in Antwerp and presented papers on ‘The impacts of the disproportionate burden of regulatory costs on the UK’s smaller airports’ and ‘Evaluating the strategic role of smaller airports in the UK’.

In July 2019 Chris Cain and Basil O’Fee attended the annual Air Transport Research Society (ATRS) conference in Amsterdam and presented papers on “Neighbouring Airports and Issues Relating to Permissible State” and “Regional Air Cargo Operations; Hub Feed or Essential Infrastructure for Globally Connected Regional Cities?”.

We are currently pursuing some interesting consultancy and collaborative conversations such as the Transport in Peripheral Regions Research Network which will give more substance and capability to our interests.  Other initiatives are in the pipeline.