Blackpool Airport

[mad_jock]

If bb own the airport but not the land is there anything stopping them destroying the runway and selling every thing down to the last light bulb on the site?

[maxred]

MJ, they could lock the gates tonight, and it could be a Tesco in two months time.

SSD, lol, I always was blue, very right of centre blue.........

[Cows getting bigger]

Tesco? Too upmarket for Blackpool. More likely a Kwiksave.

Tongue out-of-cheek, making a CAT business out of somewhere like Blackpool is near impossible. Others on the dream list should include:

Doncaster
Humberside
Derry/Londonderry
Durham Tees Valley
Norwich
Valley (or whatever they call the civilian bit)
Prestwick

[maxred]

Doncaster
Humberside
Derry/Londonderry
Durham Tees Valley
Norwich
Valley (or whatever they call the civilian bit)
Prestwick

The combined losses of that lot could run the NHS for a month or so.......

[horatio_b]

Others making sizeable losses include Liverpool (£7.1m) and Leeds (£5.2m).

Any airport without a large shopping centre attached, to generate income, is going to struggle.

[xrayalpha]

Couple of operators in Scotland with AOCs that allow commercial flights from unlicensed airfields:

Loch Lomond Seaplanes and Hebridean, if I recall correct.

So we could have a US model?

[maxred]

LLS have had a pretty major uphill struggle to survive, and if it had not been for the tenacity of its owner, well.....

Hebridean feed off a very large government subsidy. Without it, no operation.

Sorry, issues go much deeper, and a U.S. model, under EASA??????

[no slots]

I think you'll find that Norwich is one of the fastest growing( if not the fastest) regional airports in the UK. There is lots going on and more to come. Diversity is the name of the game.

[Cleared For A Coffee]

Horatio...

Liverpool has actually made a decent operating profit the last few years, it's the interest on the overall debt which brings it into a net loss.

[NorthSouth]

Diversity is the name of the game

That's surely right, and good luck to Norwich, they deserve a decent airport.
But they've been lucky in having a very nice baseline of offshore heli traffic where the "customers" are all offshore employees where the costs of security provision etc are ultimately all paid by the oil/gas companies.
The challenge for the others is to haul themselves out of the cul-de-sac of ever-decreasing income from commercial air transport users, driven by the obnoxious O'Leary, and in an era where any commercial air transport activity attracts massive security costs.
NS

[gasax]

As far as the 'growth of Norwich traffic' is concerned it would appear the East Anglian IQ continues to decline - or have the thieving airport management stopped ripping off passengers by charging them to get into the departure lounge with the 'Airport development fee'?

Without paying it of course you cannot get on a flight..................inspite of buying a ticket etc...

When exactly is the airport going to be 'developed'?

[Shaggy Sheep Driver]

But they've been lucky in having a very nice baseline of offshore heli traffic where the "customers" are all offshore employees where the costs of security provision etc are ultimately all paid by the oil/gas companies.

Didn't Blackpool enjoy this advantage, too, with the Morcambe Bay Gas Field Heli operation?

[no slots]

gasax,
You seem to be the font of all knowledge about Norwich. Airport development, some already started, some starting very soon.
New radar, state of the art engine running facility, large aircraft spray centre, aviation academy.
Basically, you have a choice. Pay the Developement fee and have a hassle free flight/ holiday. Carpark next to the terminal. Free trolleys. 1hr check in. Or drive to another airport and back again possibly at some stupid o'clock. Pay lots of money to park away from the airport, 2hr check in, pay for trolleys. Wait ages for your bags etc.
It appears that plenty of people chose to pay the fee.
In my experience security is the same where ever you choose for all the security bashers out there.

[maxred]

Well done Norwich.....getting back to Blackpool, this does not look promising for the future of ANY ops

Zolfo Cooper statement regarding Blackpool Airport Limited | Zolfo Cooper LLP

[gasax]

Interesting background from the liquidator.

According to the CAA, in 2008 Blackpool had 424,000 passengers, last year 235,000.

So if the liquidator is to be believed, it never so much as broke even. Which asks just one or two questions of Balfour Beatty's management of the place over quite a long period.

As for Norwich - the airport 'development' fee has according to their own site been used to pay for;

Over the last four years the ADF has helped investment in the following projects at the airport:

- Increase in holiday destinations (both summer and winter) and retention of scheduled services
- Terminal building extension and refurbishment
- Flight information system
- Main apron upgrades for aircraft parking in front of the terminal
- State of the art radar equipment
- Fire training and emergency response facilities and equipment

So in other words the basic running of the facility

[maxred]

So in other words the basic running of the facility

That is the UK population for you - SHEEEPLE........

[md 600 driver]

so blackpool has had 2.35 million in £10 development money LAST YEAR ALONE where has this gone? is someone going to be accountable ?

Wont the CAA take any blame

[maxred]

I flew to the Ilse of Man last year, one way to pick up my plane. I was charged the 10.00 development fee, which was a bit of a shock because when I booked the ticket, no where did it mention an additional 10.00 fee to travel out of Blackpool. This fee was non negotiable, because you could not get through security, of which there were many I might add, unless you had the voucher.

Now, if they were trading whilst insolvent, that is illegal, and a claim may be possible from all those that paid the fee. Deemed fraud perhaps.......only because there was no chance of any 'Development'.

[Mikeod]

Rm is in the paper again

?Safety threat? fears over loss of airport - Blackpool Gazette

[foxmoth]

Wont the CAA take any blame

Why? The CAA are not responsible for the commercial operation just the regulation and safety which is much the same for any airfield, it is down to the operator what level of service the airfield operates to and thus what level of regulation.