Originally Posted by davidjohnson6
3 years ago, when CAA stats showed MME to have about 180,000 pax on a rolling 12 months, I thought time was up for MME and I'd better book myself a last flight before commercial air transport was moved solely to Newcastle.
Rolling year pax figures are now about 141,000 - and show a slight decline over the previous 12 months, despite the economy right now seeming to be in reasonably good health.
Peel are a commercial organisation, not a charity. So what's keeping MME open and still operational as an airport ?
Originally Posted by SWBKCB
The potential for developing the surplus land.
Emphasis on the word surplus.
The land is more valuable to them with an active and vibrant airport on it, so it's in their interests to put the effort in. At the end of the day they're well aware it would be a lot more profitable for them in the short term to just shut the place and save themselves four million per year, no-one is forcing them to inject that money. Like them or loathe them, without Peel we wouldn't have an airport today.
My only gripe these days is the bureaucracy and red tape, which is the only reason I can think of that it's taken from November 2013 (launch of the master plan) to July 2015 to apply for the first bit of planning permission. Then again, having worked for two local authorities in my time, I can say they're not even that bad when it comes to bureaucracy and red tape either!!