Thank you for some clarity.......
 

Longmintflyer
With your Longmint association, could you spread some light on what the plans are with Sterling?
ie. have they found a suitable replacement for their MD yet?
Wasn't he trying to leave last year?
PM me if you wish.

JulieAndrews

Gerry was originally planning to retire last year but agreed to stay on mainly because of the work involved in taking on the increased flying as a result of the transfer of the National Grid contract from TAMS to Sterling and the transition from the Schweizer 333 to the Bell 206 for the contract. Gerry will step down as MD this year but has agreed to continue on a part time basis. There will be an orderly transition of responsibilities but the detailed arrangements are still under discussion.

If you are directly affected by this and want any further information feel free to send me a PM and I will give you more detail.

Rumour has it that there is a meeting being held today between the (worried) airport residents and users and the airport operators.

longmintflyer

Why was that?

996

The Schweizer 333s never provided a satisfactory solution for the contract. There were a series of maintenance issues and poor manufacturer support leading to unacceptable downtime. The maintenance input necessary per hour flown was substantially worse than with the 206. It was a better solution to discontinue using the 333s and use additional 206s and the change has proved very successful.

Thread drift := Back to Brighton & Hove International's death throws.

Sir George Cayley

Shoreham Airport is not going to go bust i.e. close for good.

The council wants it open and it owns the freehold and they have an option to take the airport back, as a last resort.

Fairoaks Airport
 

Looks like the administrators for the property half of Fairoaks are selling it all, again - except the runway! Who now owns Fairoaks Airport Ltd, not Albemarle Fairoaks Ltd? Is the 'operator' of the airport owned by the same people who own Longmint Properties or Longmint Group or Egan Lawson? Do they still own Shoreham? If the property side was bought for £42m, somebody somewhere has lost an unbelievable amount of money surely?

Does Erinaceous still exist and had that Dragon's Den bloke still got a stake?

All very confusing!

Rather concerned tenant

If by 'property' you're referring to the engineering hangar(s), they're not owned by the same company as Fairoaks Airport Ltd. and haven't been for some time.

Fairoaks - owned by same people as Shoreham still?
 

It's the built up property side, the northern half of Fairoaks which is for sale (freehold) not the operational aerodrome (runway, taxiways etc.). Albemarle Fairoaks Ltd went into administration last February and now the administrators are disposing of all the built up side of the airport - the buildings plus adjacent pockets of land (40 acres in total), but all in the greenbelt, so there's not a lot you can do with it.

See www.joneslanglasalle.com/MediaResources/EU/Property/England/JLL_England_National_Investment_Fairoaks_Airport.pdf

The runway and adjacent grass areas around it are still owned by Fairoaks Airport Ltd (FAL) - whoever owns that - is that still part of the Longmint Group? But there's no airport infrastructure included in that land at all - just a strip of tarmac and grass.

The problem is that aside from the airport operator/owner (FAL) and Mann Aviation, nobody else has any security of tenure and could all be booted off in a blink of an eye for redevelopment or new deals at much higher rents.

It's a bit worrrying to say the least. What gaurantees are there that Fairoaks Airport Ltd will continue to operate their side as an aerodrome, licensed or otherwise? Without any property income (for FAL), there's not enough cash from landing fees etc. for that to remain a viable licensed strip and they've still got to pay the new buyer of the northern side an extortionate amount for a few operational buildings - at least until 2017, when the lease term expires. But I doubt they'll survive that long - the numbers just don't stack up.

Who's got the background on this? :uhoh:

Not surprised
 

Property speculators with questionable track records owning airports. Whoever these people who flip companies for a pound are, they have done a lot of damage to the prospects of what it was a very well run aviation business at Fairoaks and Shoreham. I do really hope new owners with an interest in aviation take over and restore proper operations. Why is the property for sale and not the airport?

I stumbled on this thread when looking for news about Sterling Helicopters in East Anglia recently.

http://www.pprune.org/rotorheads/443...ml#post6278320

And, when placed next the the EAAA thread, one might deduce a thread/trend of management practices?

So who now owns it?
 

So Albermarle gave up its lease after failing to fulfill on promise to fund re-development of Shoreham by £4million. No surprises there I guess?
BCAL now 'own' it or are they simply operators?
Update from someone in the know would be appreciated.