Originally Posted by
southside bobby
Thanks for the detailed explanation...Grateful.
Makes you wonder how the operator/concessionaire eases out of contractual commitments & if the Council have a legal team strong enough to recover for the Luton residents & taxpayers all or any of the investment/s being made.
The problem for the Council is that there is only 11 years left on the concession. The existing concessionaire now won’t spend vast sums of money on projects that they will have to gift to the Council in 2031 and has now ducked out of extending the taxiway at runway 25 and building a new apron.
The Council plan is that a new concessionaire will take over in 2031 who will pay off all the airport debts of around £500m as a one off upfront payment. Spend maybe £2 billion building a new airport and attaching it to the existing runway and extending the Dart. They will also be expected to pay a concession fee per passenger as before. The question is will they find a company willing to take on the protect? One thing is for sure, it would have to be something like a 99 year lease or longer.
Of course the government might turn the expansion down.