Originally Posted by
Lee Baker Street
I do not pretend to know how company finance works but LBC have assets last audited on 31st March 2018 and declared as being £1.341 Billion. Further more I do not see LBC taking a gamble (as implied) but simply investing in Lutons future. If LLAO built six extra remote stands overnight then those stands would be in regular use in a very short time.
The town of Luton has a population of around 220,000. Investing £600m in an airport is going to take an awfully long time to recoup that debt. LBC was once getting £1.43 per passenger, but I understand that is no longer the case? Even so, after interest has been added, those making the decisions today, will be long dead before that debt is repaid. Even my crystal ball cannot see that far into the future! The world of aviation will certainly have moved on by then. I stand by my words, 'a huge gamble'. Should there be a downturn in aviation, history says that it is likely to happen, will those residents then lose out with local council funding being squeezed to make the debt payments?
If it was an airport operator borrowing the money for a project of this size, no one would blink, but the town the size of Luton saddling each of those 220,000 residents with an equivalent £2.75m debt, utter madness! What extra benefit are the towns folk actually going to get, it will not be money into the town hall coffers to spend on the town? No, with that size of debt the only benefits to local residents are increased traffic, noise and pollution. Oh any bye the way, I do not live anywhere close to the airport, but if I did, I'd be branching out as an independent at the local council elections!