Glad to see that negativity is alive and kicking on the thread.
Also pleased to see that some posters ae still able to take quotes out of context.
I assume Deedave was being sarchastic when he said,
"A bit of remortgaging, and an input of 100K each, and you have a nice little syndicate."
Jetscream said that the local syndicate was for pre operational stage only backed up by a city investment.
But you are correct Nik Nak a few hundred thousand, even a million would be gone in a very short space of time.
I would take issue with your condemnation of Infratil in terms of their business skills as they seem to be doing OK in NZ.
I would agree that it would be impossible to obtain a Government grant to develop an airport for the 2012 Olympics, but I do not undetstand your statement that the terminal facilities are barely enough for current trade. The terminal facilities are exactly the same as tey were when EUjet were operating and that coped with 350,000 pax!
I do believe that a small, well managed, non ego based, lean operation with tight financial controls and strong backing would be successful at MSE, but I guess we will just have to wait and see.
MDIS