Can anyone cofirm, did Air Atlantique have the lease , or own Coventry Airport at one stage, why did they buy, and why did they sell.
CCC scared off TBI and A.N.OTHER buyer for the lease because they demanded that too much money be invested (money that the Council themselves refused to invest) and then announced that Air Atlantique was the preferred bidder for the airport (that was a joke in itself as AA didn't actually bid for it, rather that CCC wanted them to take it on and AA were waiting in the wings). Atlantique saw it as an opportunity to secure their base. I wouldn't be too sure they actually carried out the due diligence properly as it seemed to us that it was all done with unseemly haste. If memory serves, it was a 99 years lease.
As for why they sold the lease, I can only guess they found that running an airport wasn't quite as easy as they had imagined, however, knowing now what they do, it's possible that they might be better at it second time round.