Actually the sum paid to the council for the year ending 2011 was £24,935,178. The previous year it was £21,848,491. The operating profit after fees was £23.8 million on a turnover of £112.1million which is quite good.
You have to remember that if the airport was sold for say £750 million, which is less than a third of what Stansted was sold for, with an interest rate of say 3%, this would cost £22 million in interest payments.
I agree the lease term is too short but it has never stopped companies wanting to run the airport as there is still money to be made.
Abertis owns Cardiff and Belfast but I didn't see much investment there. It was only because the airport was council owned that forced Abertis to plan for expansion. If they had owned Luton they would have done nothing.
Last edited by LTNman; 26th Feb 2013 at 05:59.