niknak and the dude,
Is the majority opinion in Cornwall that it would be better not to have an airport if it means a large subsidy from local tax payers?
Without a London air connection would not the region be even more isolated, and I am thinking of Cornish people wanting to travel rather than tourists coming in?
Without an airport it means a surface jaunt to Plymouth (for LGW, always assuming that Air Southwest would find a LGW-PLH route viable without NQY), Exeter (for slightly more choice given flybe's new plans) or Bristol (for more choice again, but still only European destinations). Otherwise it means a road or rail trip to the capital.
It seems to me that the Southwest Regional Development Agency is alive to the needs of the far southwest as they out it, mainly Devon and Cornwall in plain language, when it comes to air services.
They commissioned a survey earlier this year into air travel in the far southwest and certainly subsidy of routes is something being considered, but that would not come from local tax payers directly.