Does Luton Borough Council have any say in who the new leaseholders will be for the airport?!
It seems strange to me, that the council can only choose initially who the leaseholders are for the airport, and all it takes is for the current leaseholder during their 20-30 year lease to sell it to whoever they like. I would have thought the council would have some clause in the lease stating if this situation occurs they have some sort of say in who the lease is sold to or the right to cancel it.
As the council will have agreed the original lease, based upon what those operators wanted to do with the airport and their future plans. If you sell on the lease, there is nothing stopping the new operators doing something completely different with the plans and something that LBC might be against and prevented an original tender from obtaining the lease.
I am also disappointed the council are not using this opportunity to possibly re-negotiate the lease of the airport, for a new 30 year period. This could then be used to secure future upgrades to the airport.
I am going to be my usual pessimistic self
and predict any future operator is likely to only make minimal upgrades to the airport in the short period they will have the airport for. To just maximise returns and profit on any purchase they make.
I think I would prefer to see the Australian bid from Macquarie Bank takeover the airport. Investment Banks and Private Funds usually have a track record in pumping money into businesses they buy and turning them around. This could however have a negative effect on airlines if charges were to increase, but on the other hand if facilities and infrastructure improved, that could go in the airlines favour.