Originally Posted by
SWBKCB
The Tees Valley Mayor doesn't have "seemingly endless pot of money", but he does have a develeopment budget from central govt, part of which he has chosen to spend on the airport as part of his strategy for increasing inward investment - to quote, "inward investment won't arrive at the bus station, it will walk through the terminal doors".
Where that approach differs to Cardiff is that the WG approach seems to be that the airport is being run as a stand-alone business, without this explicit "global connectivity" aim (or have I missed it?)
What is missing in both cases is transparency on what taxpayers money is being used for, and any controls around govt supported businesses competing against private businesses
What worries me when the airport is being run at arm’s length on a commercial basis is the amount of commercial experience the director’s have had at other airports. Apart from Spencer, who has had experience elsewhere, but has been promoted into his first senior position at CWL, who among the senior management has commercial experience at other airports?
At the Senedd Public Acoounts Committee of 02/03/2020 the senior management stood by their forecast of 2m. passengers and profitability by 2025. This was at the time when we were at risk of the epidemic in China becoming a global pandemic and three days before the flybe collapse when industry insiders could see what was coming. I thought it was an astonishing performance and not for good reasons.