Originally Posted by
Ernest Lanc's
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.
You're probably right. If the owners think they can make more money from the site without a passenger airport, there's not much that anyone can do about it. BB had no obligation to the people of Blackpool. Not sure how many passengers Blackpool was handling at its height. Over a million?
Humberside is one that is struggling for sure, and I imagine its not being helped by the growth at DSA. Humberside has a decent catchment area too, Hull is a big city, plus Grimsby and Scunthorpe.
In their favour, there will always be people who will choose to fly from a smaller local airport when possible. I'm from Sheffield and certainly prefer to avoid MAN when possible, despite the train link.