Here's a bit more form the Birmingham Post about that airport just up the M42" (A45 actually).
I have to say that I fully agree with the sentiment with the exception that I think that it sould happen as soon as possible. This uncontrolled development of CVT threatens a meaningful air transport strategy in the Midlands.
'Buy rival airport and flatten it' Nov 7 2005
By Campbell Docherty, Transport Correspondent
Birmingham International Airport should buy Coventry Airport, demolish it and build houses on the site instead, according to a leading Midlands business expert.
John Kirk, head of business development at the University of Central England, said the burgeoning passenger operation at Coventry was a " non-starter" but if BIA feels it is harming its own expansion plans it should simply take it over.
Mr Kirk is no stranger to airport competition - he was also the head of public relations at Manchester Airport during its own expansion in the early 1990s, when the larger airport's plans were compromised by those of the much smaller Liverpool Airport.
Last week, BIA published its draft master plan for growing to cope with threetimes the passenger demand over the next 25 years. The £ 1.5 billion plan includes an extension to the current runway, a third terminal and a second runway.
Managing director Richard Heard has repeated his concern that the existence of Coventry Airport just 11 miles away "compromised" those plans.
"I have seen this all before when I was at Manchester," said Mr Kirk. "We always had this with Liverpool who were threatening to expand all the time.
"But you need some corporate muscle to grow an airport, you need some market visibility because airlines are just going to ask Coventry why they should take a leap of faith by going there rather than Birmingham.
"It costs a lot of money to introduce a new plane to an airport - when I was at Manchester an airline introducing a new 767 cost a quarter of a million.
"But the fact of the matter is that Coventry is starting from scratch and it is going to take hundreds of millions of pounds to introduce the kind of infrastructure required to entice business from new airlines."
Last month, reports suggested Coventry owners TUI had offered the airport to BIA.
Overall, Mr Kirk believes the BIA plan is an "economic imperative" but warned the airport it would not be easy to realise.
"We went through all this at Manchester 15 years ago. It is all very familiar.
"We used to regard BIA as a bit of a minnow, with a short runway and a small terminal. We used to come down to nick their business.
"But an airport is just a piece of real estate and their real customers are the airlines. Building a runway alone costs something like £100 million. You have to raise that money from somewhere."
He added: "Expanding an airport is a bit of a catch-22 because you can only build the new runway when you have the business but you only get the business when you have the runway.
"BIA certainly has to crank up it's marketing to the world's airlines to persuade them to operate services from there rather than Heathrow, Gatwick, Manchester. Amsterdam and the like."
The BIA plans were " realistic" he added because it was to attract medium haul flights.
BIA is consulting on its draft master plan and aims to present a finished document to Solihull Council next year.