Aviation is a critical part of the UK’s transport system. The UK’s aviation sector currently carries over 235 million passengers and circa 40% (by value) of the UK’s annual exports. The aviation sector itself accounts for 3.6% of GDP and underpins many other parts of the economy.
Whilst ICE does not believe in a blanket “predict and provide” approach, if left unaddressed this situation will put the UK at a significant competitive disadvantage to competitors in France, the Netherlands, Germany and further afield that are making significant investments in their hub airports.
An Aviation Lifed Expert Panel (LEP) was established to oversee ICE's response to the Draft Aviation Policy Framework (NAPF) consultation, and establish ICE's position on the debate over runway capacity. The Aviation LEP consists of members of ICE's Transport Panel, and leading aviation experts.
While some airports do currently have significant spare capacity, taken as a whole, the network is suffering from severe capacity constraints, with the immediate pressure point being London and South East England
Within South East England there are a number of airports including London Gatwick, London Heathrow, London Oxford, Manston International and Southampton. Possible airports in the Thames Estuary or on new sites in Oxfordshire are also under discussion.
Any decisions taken on capacity issues will have a significant impact on the region which is why a Regional Aviation Panel has been established to support the work of the ICE's National Aviation Lifed Expert Panel.
This Aviation Panel is comprised of members of ICE in the South East England region who have particular expertise in the aviation sector.
Panel Chairman: Rob James 
CEng
Rob James is a Principal Civil Engineer at Amey in Crawley, where he leads their Airport Infrastructure Team.
Rob has worked in civil engineering for more than 15 years delivering multi-million pound airport and highway infrastructure projects, including the 2009 Thomas Brassey Award winning A2 Pepperhill to Cobham Widening.
Panel Secretary: Martin O'Connell 
Originally from Dublin, Ireland, Martyn graduated with an honours degree in civil engineering from University College Dublin in 2008 followed by a research master’s degree in 2010 on the topic of “Biological Deterioration of Concrete Incorporating GGBS in Aggressive Wastewater Environments”. Martyn is a published author in the field and continues to play an advisory role in research projects at his alma mater.
Following graduation he became a site engineer with Ferrovial Agroman on the construction of Terminal 2A at Heathrow Airport. He subsequently moved to a design co-ordination role on the construction of Terminal 3’s new integrated baggage processing facility. He is now a civil design engineer with Amey in their airport infrastructure team where he has been involved in projects at Heathrow, Stansted and Glasgow airports.
His technical interests lie in concrete technology and pavement engineering while a lifelong interest in aviation has guided his engineering career thus far.
Panel Member: Mike Birchall 
Mike Birchall is a Chartered Civil Engineer and a Fellow of ICE. He has 35 years experience in the fields of civil/transportation engineering and planning.
After completing a degree in civil engineering and an MSc in Transportation Engineering, he initially worked for two firms of consulting engineers on transport plans and scheme designs for three urban areas in Britain. Following this he worked for the airport operator BAA for 30 years on the detailed planning and design of major projects at airports in the UK and overseas including Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Macau and Kuala Lumpur.
He joined ICE in June 2008 as Membership Development Officer for Surrey and parts of Hampshire and Sussex, and is also a Reviewer.
Panel Member: John Elliott BSc (hons), CEng, MICE FCIHT, MCMI
John studied Aeronautical Engineering at University of Southampton and then worked in Aircraft Industry for six years including involvement in airport and aircraft policy and types.
The rest of his career, now totalling over 45 years, has been in Transport, Traffic and Highway Planning, other engineering, property and planning services or senior management, including large part in Local Government.
He has worked for two consultants Scott Wilson and Colin Buchanan as well as for a number of local authorities including Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, Greater London Council, Barking, Aylesbury Vale and Barnet.
John has also headed two parking management companies, Sterling Granada and Legion, and responsible for strategic site development and Transport issues for Pfizer.
Panel Member: Bob Haywood BSc (Hons) CEng FICE 
Bob Haywood has been involved with airports for more than 30 years, from the planning, design and construction perspectives.
His experience ranges from work on smaller regional airports to some of the most recent and largest airport projects in the world, such as Hong Kong’s Chek Lap Kok and Jeddah’s airport, King Abdulaziz International Airport.
Working on both the client and supplier’s side has seen him work in Europe, Africa and the Middle and Far East.
His core skill is civil engineering, with a penchant for design of aircraft pavements, planning of airport expansion programmes and master planning of entirely new airport facilities.
His experience has also meant that he has led large multi-discipline teams, delivering design of not only passenger terminals but the complete range of other ancillary facilities such as ATC towers, FCR buildings and large span maintenance hangars.
Panel Member: Rod Hulse CEng FICE 
Rod Hulse holds a Bachelors degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Salford, Manchester and a post graduate Diploma in Management Studies from The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen. He became a Chartered Engineer in 1985.
After graduating he worked with a civil engineering contractor on major projects all over Scotland including Aberdeen and Glasgow airports.
He then joined Morrison Construction as a Contract Manager and managed a variety of projects including runway and pavement reconstruction at RAF Lossiemouth.
Rod joined BAA in 1994 as Engineering Manager at Aberdeen airport, subsequently moving to Glasgow Airport eventually becoming Engineering General Manager for BAA’s three Scottish Airports. In 2005 he was appointed to corporate roles as Head of Maintenance Development and later Head of Technical Leadership for six BAA airports.
He joined Gatwick Airport prior to its sale in 2009 and is currently Head of Development Engineering.
Rod is a member of the Government Private Client BIM group and was admitted as a Fellow of the ICE in 2012.
Panel Member: Graham Ruddock
Panel Member: Rob Sibley CEng MICE .jpg.aspx?width=183&height=180)
Rob is a specialist in Transport with considerable knowledge of the aviation sector.
For more than 25 years he worked on the development of London’s main airports including new rail links, terminals, runways and supporting infrastructure.
In addition Rob has worked in the Asia-Pacific region (including Hong Kong) and in Europe exploring opportunities for the investment in and the operation of foreign airports. He has worked closely with the European Investment Bank as airport advisor.
Most recently he has worked as Head of Strategic Planning and Policy at Gatwick Airport for the new owners. Throughout his work, Rob has been passionate about understanding local community concerns, developing mitigation proposals and balancing these with the economic benefit to the nation of new transport infrastructure.
Panel Member: Alistair Thompson CEng FICE 
Panel Member: David Walton 