Seems the airport or should I say the Council is in more trouble than first thought. The Dart is costing at least an extra £18m taking the bill to £247m. The original cost was meant to be £200. The DCO to government requires another £5m. Baring in mind LLAL as no staff and was set up to just be the collector of concession fees it needs an extra £60m this financial year from the Council and another £23m next year while cutting back the dividend to zero for at least the next 2 years. This is due to the the Council getting involved in airport expansion when that was the task of the airport operator who was meant to carry the financial risks.
The truth is that the Council got greedy and always wanted more so would not wait. They keep claiming the financial mess isn't the Councils fault when clearly it is. They borrowed and borrowed and lent LLAL hundreds of millions of pounds that LLAL now can't pay back. Now they have been caught with their pants down. There also appears to be a legal despite with the airport operator who is claiming force majeure to get out of contractual obligations. Apparently that will also have a further financial impact on the Council.