COVENTRY

[DB6]

Did the guy who really buggered up Oban Airport have anything to do with this?

[Say again s l o w l y]

Yep. Sure does.

[niknak]

I would be amazed if the airport does not get taken on as a going concern.

I would be amazed if it does.

Its been poorly managed for a number of years now and requires a huge investment just to manage the debt, never mind running an airport with little or no commercial income and huge overheads.
That, the cost of commercial borrowing and the attitude of the combined local authorites to any expansion is enough to put off any potential investor, in fact I think they'd be carted off to the funny farm for even thinking about it.
I can't see Bagington ever returning as an airport, in fact, as others have said elsewhere, if the local councils have anything to do with it, I wouldn't be suprised to see it sold off as a business park or similar in the near future.

Good luck to all affected (ineviatebly it won't just be those directly employed at the airport).

[horatio_b]

Any new buyer would have no reponsibility for the debts of the old company, although any outstanding maintenance work to bring the airport up to scratch might prove expensive..

[niknak]

Sorry, should have made myself cleaer - I wasn't refering to existing company debts, but the debt any new investor would immediately incur in buying the place and trying to make it a commercially attractive proposition.

It's a non starter.

[Black Art]

Sad, sad news for Coventry

Have to agree with Standard Noise about Coventry City Council.

In the early nineties they were, I believe, paying the monies from fuel sales (massively increased as a result of the recent night freight operations) and the hangar rentals directly into the councils 'budget black hole'. This loss of revenue resulted in the airport losing part of its income and being unable to invest. It resulted in an interest free loan from the airport to the Council. At the end of each financial year the Council would return this money to the airport claiming it was a massive subsidy to keep the airport afloat and would ensure this view was publicised on the front page of the Coventry Evening Telegraph (shame upon their investigative journalist skills).

Whilst undertaking this, possible, deception they were, I believe, in contravention of the '1986 Airports Act' by robbing the airport of land, thereby changing the airport boundary, to develop an aviation business park they had no intention of keeping purely for aviation.

Trust councillors and placemen with an airport.......you would have to be a fool.

Black Art

[Arbottle]

I can't see the land being used for another business park. Coventry already has more than enough on the go, or just lying empty: Brown's Lane, Whitley, the doomed Ansty business park, Peugot, not to mention the huge Friargate project in the city centre (25 new buildings, most of which are for businesses)

Coventry's council is currently Tory - it's been labour pretty much constantly since the war. Labour have done far worse things to Coventry over the last 70 years than a bit of financial mucking around with the airport! Maybe the tories might have a slightly different slant towards the airport?

Re: Coventry Telegraph. It's a worthless waste of paper - you can find out more from looking at various forums (Try SkyscraperCity - Powered by vBulletin where there's a fairly active Coventry crowd in the Birmingham subforums).

[Air Hop]

Where does this leave operators such as Atlantic?

[BYALPHAINDIA]

Coventry Atlantique Int Airport?

I am no expert on Coventry, And has only visited about 3 x Hence living a fair way from it.

But wouldn't it make sense in the 'Long Term'

For Air Atlantique/ Atlantic Airways & Mike Collett to purchase the airfield OUTRIGHT?

Then there would be NO Council involved?

NO Bhx involved?

And no 'Silly' ideas about it becoming an Int Airport again?

The facts speak for themselves = It's history is a Cargo only Airfield.

If Air Atlantique/Atlantic Airways owned the Airfield OUTRIGHT then they would be 1 loving caring owner.

Air Atlantique/Atlantic Airways & Mike Collett have a record second to none!

I think it would make sense for them to purchase it?

(I'm stating the obvious solution and I don't even live there!)

[fear and loathing]

atlantic owned the ariport before and could barely afford to run it, i think the fact that the airfield is littered with their dead aircraft speaks volumes.
the trouble with cvt is that everyone allegedly wants it to be successful but they want them to do it with one hand tied behind their back. we are a city that now has no industry ( engineering gone! car manufacturing gone!) if the airport had a little bit of backing from the locals the airport could have been a major source of income/employment.

[athonite]

Can anyone cofirm, did Air Atlantique have the lease , or own Coventry Airport at one stage, why did they buy, and why did they sell.

If Air Atlantique, did sell perhaps they have shot themselves in the foot, additionally they perhaps have the experience (or competance) to manage an airport predominately cargo (in terms of income), but also charter, training and GA.

[EGBE0523]

Coventry Council are experts in getting involved in things they don't understand i.e. Ricoh Stadium and Coventy Rugby Club at The Butts.
Back to CVT it's made for freight with the M45/M1, M69/M6 right in front of it. Ok it's going to piss off the index linked pension retirement brigade in Stoneleigh etc but Coventry needs jobs and I live close enough to have enjoyed the TOM 737's going off on their first phase around 06:00 Hrs and the odd the prop Freighter breaking the night silence circa 01:00-02:30. At the end of the day if you buy a property near a railway line you will hear trains if you buy a house near CVT what will you hear? The airport has been here since the late 30s

[HeliCraig]

Interesting comments considering it's actually Birmingham's airspace.

I know this is picking on semantics, but no it isn't. It is the property of the UK Government, who, through the CAA allow BHX to manage it. BHX would do well to remember this!

Very sorry to hear of the news for CVT, and I hope someone buys it and gets it up and running again. I have enjoyed the little bits of flying I have done out of there!!

C.

[Arbottle]

Coventry Council are experts in getting involved in things they don't understand i.e. Ricoh Stadium and Coventy Rugby Club at The Butts.

They had to get involved with the Ricoh, otherwise the project would have gone under and its proven to be an asset. Interestingly, the current Tory council were the opposition back then and were dead against the council putting money into it.

What have they done with the Rugby club? I wasn't aware the council were involved with them.

[tonge]

Will Eddie Stobart come to the rescue???

[Happy Wanderer]

Will Eddie Stobart come to the rescue???

Second time I've heard this today......

HW

[Happy Wanderer]

I know this is picking on semantics, but no it isn't. It is the property of the UK Government, who, through the CAA allow BHX to manage it. BHX would do well to remember this!

Semantics as you say - 1500' aal at EGBE is the base of B'ham Class D CTA. All (or most) departing IFR traffic at EGBE has to be released by B'ham.

HW

[Standard Noise]

Can anyone cofirm, did Air Atlantique have the lease , or own Coventry Airport at one stage, why did they buy, and why did they sell.

CCC scared off TBI and A.N.OTHER buyer for the lease because they demanded that too much money be invested (money that the Council themselves refused to invest) and then announced that Air Atlantique was the preferred bidder for the airport (that was a joke in itself as AA didn't actually bid for it, rather that CCC wanted them to take it on and AA were waiting in the wings). Atlantique saw it as an opportunity to secure their base. I wouldn't be too sure they actually carried out the due diligence properly as it seemed to us that it was all done with unseemly haste. If memory serves, it was a 99 years lease.
As for why they sold the lease, I can only guess they found that running an airport wasn't quite as easy as they had imagined, however, knowing now what they do, it's possible that they might be better at it second time round.

[Leofric]

It was Air Atlantique as airport owners who brought Thomsonfly to Coventry. They found that they were unable to deliver what they had promised Thomsonfly, possibly partly lack of expertise and partly lack of money. TUI bought the airport to rescue the launch of their new airline. What they achieved in three months was remarkable including setting up the little terminal and completely resurfacing the runway. Unfortunately Atlantiques major achievement was peeing off the Planning Authority which later had disastrous consequences. They had allegedly breached the rules on permitted development rights.

[fear and loathing]

ducki i couldnt agree more!!