This one has been openly on the cards for years. I don't think the council has any intention of allowing it to close.
The basic problem is that no well maintained GA airport (and Shoreham definitely is well maintained, as well as having superb ATC) can live off GA operations alone.
IMHO a big historical mistake was to allow an unrestricted number of flying schools to set up, ensuring that none of them has enough business to make money and is able to afford the modern planes needed to attract the affluent customers which Sussex should be full of.
There is also very limited hangarage which is why many other airfields, even really boggy bumpy grass ones, have a bigger collection of classy owner aircraft based there. Nobody will park something decent outside by choice.
Politically, Shoreham is squeezed between the NIMBYs (whose stupidity was well demonstrated by the "stop 747 jumbos" compaign when the original hard runway was being debated - as if a 747 could land in 1100m) and their desire to increase their house values by closing the airport down, the need to attract more high-value traffic, and the movements cap which presumably is an old deal between the council and the protesters.
I don't think anybody really believes they can get BAE 146-type planes in there, because Gatwick is just up the road. But they've got to do something! The proposed wider runway with ILS would be a major plus for larger (but not noisier) traffic, as well as those presently based there, because the present 20 MDH is next to useless relative to the commonly prevailing weather and the nearby terrain presents a real danger. On days like today, 1000ft cloudbase, almost nobody is flying.
Last edited by IO540; 25th Jan 2005 at 09:30.