Originally Posted by
Barnstable
As long as Wizz remains I think Donny is safe whatever else happens. It has a decent catchment area and awareness and PAX are growing.[...]Blackpool is a good example of how a smaller airport's fortunes can decline for the reasons you suggest above.
Yes but Blackpool had a decent catchment area. Blackpool had decent pax numbers. The airport not long before it closed, jet2 was expanding it's number of routes. Also Blackpool was easy to use and a runway better than SEN at the time. The difference was BB owned Blackpool Airport.
Blackpool also has the ADF at £10 a head.
Yet Blackpool closed to commercial flights.
One can only assume it was poorley managed and despite high pax numbers and route expansion - Jet2 must have been paying a pittence for landing fees.
Lots of factors are against small airports and IMO none are safe.