Originally Posted by
davidjpowell
It's being put to market as the council will be the head leaseholder. What terms have been negotiated between the council and Peel will of course be commercially confidential.
It is not clear in any of the updates that Peel have agreed to any terms of lease, just that they may be amenable to the idea. Also, as far as I can see the council have not announced that they are the head leaseholder. In fact they appear to be careful not to provide any detail in that whatsoever which could be misleading.
From the outside looking in, the Council appear to be acting as the middle-man to bring investor(s) to the table for Peel to consider, whilst using the threat of CPO in an effort to force their hand. Much the same as they did when they were trying to force a sale.
Whatever may or may not be agreed, it will have to have a sufficient ROI for Peel to even seriously consider. This then comes back to the general belief that Peel have either purposefully or inadvertently mismanaged the airport during its operational history. There are those of us who believe this is the case, then there are those of us who find it inconceivable that they would, over a period of 25 years, invest vast amounts in fighting for it, building it and subsidising perennial losses into a site just to receive a couple of roads so that they can close it.
It is for this reason I find it difficult to believe that any investment would get past the due diligence of any experienced airport operator, unless of course there is the promise of more funding available in the form of (significant) public subsidy to limit risk.
Also announced last week was a plan by LBA, as part of the redevelopment due to commence in September, that there will be an extra 10 aircraft stands created. That is a huge increase which suggests they are optimistic of agreeing terms with another base operator. With LBA being on a continued growth trajectory and EMA holding the cards with the freight integrators, still find it hard to believe there is much else to squeeze out of the already competitive market. The application for LBA airspace change proposal has been escalated and is likely to move to public consultation. It has been stated that should DSA reopen, it will have to work around the new LBA airspace allocation.