LTNman told us in an earlier thread: "after tax and after paying Luton Council £11.8m in fees the airport made 16p profit per passenger in 2004".
ebenezer responded: "Agreed - but this still represents a net profit of around £1.2m for 2004/05."
When it's time to spend the bulk of the £1.5bn for the new works, and passenger numbers might have doubled, the Airport might expect to be clearing a profit of £2.4m a year. But at that rate it would take over 600 years to recoup the cost of the works - which just doesn't add up.
However, if the airport pocketed the concession fee itself (because the new airport would no longer be on the Council's land), its annual profit could be as much as £26m. At that rate it would recoup the cost of the works in just under 60 years.
It remains to be seen whether anyone really would be prepared to invest over that timescale anyway, but it doesn't look as though the Council will be seeing much of its concession fee in the years ahead.
Or am I missing something?
