which purports to show that a £10 Airport Development Fee would have made PLH profitable. The problem is that they assume that increasing the cost of a flight by £10 has zero impact on demand, i.e. that demand for air travel to/from Plymouth is completely price-inelastic
Well at least the £10 is only charged on the outbound. Then again, which arrival airport were we coming into? Not LHR or LCY (in travelcard zones) - so add a good £8 each way for the airport shuttle.
Now the starter fare to Paddington is just £13 - £3 more than the user fee, which is on top of the PSC and APD, all being vatable if the Lib Dem MPs that might say they back the airport get their way.
Now NQY is a totally different ball game - the earliest and fastest train still takes just over 5hrs, arriving after 3pm, great for a day's business! And NQY still struggles!