Regional Airports
What is the future of regional airports like Bournemouth, Teeside, Humberside and such like?
Knowing Humberside quite well (Not an expert so this thread may have some errors but i'm sure someone will correct me!)
Take Humberside, ok its a the base for Eastern Aw, has scheduled links to Amsterdam (Klmcityhopper, or whatever they are calling themselves now a days) and Aberdeen (Eastern), helicopter base (formerly Bond Helicopters) serving the Oil & Gas industry, small GA based aircraft, odd couple of flying schools and then theres the charter flights to the sunnier climates but is that sufficient to economically run a regional airport?
The Lo-co's I presume pay very little to regional airports and from what I have read the airports offer fees that are considerably lower than the norm, so very little profit there.
So I guess the airport concessions etc are the real money spinners, retailers charged the earth to service the masses flowing through the airport.
But take for example Humberside, they dont have a Lo-co operator using the airport so the flow of passengers is just for the miniscule regional services and seasonal charter flights, so how can money be invested in the airport when the profit generated must be small or run at a loss. The lack of investment then has a knock on effect by not attracting the Lo-co's and more regional services!
Would be intrested to know how owners of the regional airports in the same boat as HUY throughout the UK forsee the future.