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Blackpool Airport Reopening Stopped By Local Council

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LancasterRed

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Proposals to see commercial flights taking off from Blackpool Airport once again have been dealt a blow by councillors, who have voted that they will not support the idea, in an explosive full council meeting.

...

Following the debate, the Blackpool councillors voted in favour of the motion that they cannot support the reopening of Blackpool Airport to commercial flights at this time.

Apologies that I couldn't grab the full quote due to Lancs Live's finicky mobile interface. Calling Blackpool a 'gateway to the lakes' is incorrect when there is already a Lake District airport but as a former useful airport this surely has its place.

Seems very short sighted but maybe RUK members will have more knowledge.
 
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Bletchleyite

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Apologies that I couldn't grab the full quote due to Lancs Live's finicky mobile interface. Calling Blackpool a 'gateway to the lakes' is incorrect when there is already a Lake District airport but as a former useful airport this surely has its place.

Seems very short sighted but maybe RUK members will have more knowledge.

Not sure it's that useful. Manchester will always have better coverage (as well as Liverpool) and is well connected by train to the Lakes and Blackpool. TBH they should probably just flog it off for housing or a business park.
 

Howardh

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Pity. I was one of those stung by the £10 "facility fee" after using the airport for flights to the Isle of Man and Ibiza for several years. Manchester Airport is an overgrown shambles and Blackpool was a lovely alternative.

But it needs a lot of flights +expansion to be anything like profitable;and it simply won't happen.
 

Tetchytyke

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Seems very short sighted but maybe RUK members will have more knowledge.

The article explains the airport is likely to lose £2m a year, and that's presumably based on pre-Covid assessments. Post-Covid, who knows.

£2m a year is a lot of money to find for a council.
 

Bald Rick

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The airport does, of course, remain open for general aviation, and is reasonably busy.

Nevertheless, in the current climate where almost every commercial airport in the country is losing money hand over fist, it would have been a bizarre, bordering negligent, decision to spend millions of council taxpayers’ money to accommodate air passenger traffic that simply isn’t there.
 

S&CLER

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I was once told that the Ordnance Survey aerial photography plane was based at Blackpool as the most central airport in the British landmass and also one of the least prone to fog. Is this correct?
 

Billbo

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Pure and simple point scoring exercise by newly elected Tory MP. If the airport wasnt viable before, it isn't going to be now.
 

Roose

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As good a Gateway to the Lakes as Carlisle (and as many commercial flights nowadays). Bletchleyite correctly identifies Manchester as the true gateway airport with direct rail services to Ulverston, Grange, Oxenholme and Penrith, all around the edge of the National Park.

I found Blackpool very convenient to use for Ryanair, Jet2 and Manx2 flights and was happy to pay the departure charge as it included parking.
 

61653 HTAFC

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All the moaning about diesel trains running under wires, yet people want good money thrown after bad on an airport for a depressed provincial town?

Really??!! :rolleyes:
 

PR1Berske

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Coming from Preston, I would love to have an airport practically on my doorstep such as Blackpool....though we have to look at the reality here. Before Covid, it was not holding its own. During and after Covid, it would have to justify its existence over and above that expected from existing airports to make any kind of positive return for the investment. I just can't see that happening.

A council such as Blackpool needs to justify every penny it spends in this 'new normal' era. Re-opening the airport on the basis that existing airlines might run token shuttle flights to Douglas and Guernsey? Re-opening the airport on the hope that passengers don't mind trundling across from Squires Gate? I dare say Blackpool has much, much more pressing concerns than that.
 

rebmcr

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All the moaning about diesel trains running under wires, yet people want good money thrown after bad on an airport for a depressed provincial town?

Really??!! :rolleyes:

Probably not the same people, if you take a moment to think about it.
 

Baxenden Bank

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There is nothing to stop those proposing flights to pay the full costs of re-opening and then running the airport, rather than expecting the public purse to do so.

Any takers, no I guess not!
 

mikeg

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I doubt it is viable, but say it was privatised and could support itself, I'd say they're just NIMBYs. On the other hand, subsidising an airport, particularly against greener forms of transport would be a perverse subsidy. I'm no free marketeer, rather I believe that buses, trains should be allowed to flourish first, airports should be allowed to function but with no penny of subsidy. Does anyone actually know whether the council were planning to put money towards the operation of the airport in these proposals?
 

Baxenden Bank

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I doubt it is viable, but say it was privatised and could support itself, I'd say they're just NIMBYs. On the other hand, subsidising an airport, particularly against greener forms of transport would be a perverse subsidy. I'm no free marketeer, rather I believe that buses, trains should be allowed to flourish first, airports should be allowed to function but with no penny of subsidy. Does anyone actually know whether the council were planning to put money towards the operation of the airport in these proposals?
Going back to the original story.

Gosh, look, it's a Conservative MP suggesting proposals on behalf of his constituents where the owner happens to be a Labour controlled council. What possible motives could he have? I wonder if his fellow Conservative MP's will vote for Blackpool to be given the money from central funds for this key piece of national infrastructure?
 

py_megapixel

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The last thing we need at the moment is more commercial flights. Also if they claimed it was unviable in 2017, how is it supposed to be viable now? If it reopens, I imagine what will happen is that huge amounts of public money will be used to prop it up, for no particular reason.
 

randyrippley

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I was once told that the Ordnance Survey aerial photography plane was based at Blackpool as the most central airport in the British landmass and also one of the least prone to fog. Is this correct?

They are based there, no idea why though
 

LSWR Cavalier

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A similar thing happened at Luebeck airport, Germany (also known as 'Hamburg' despite being 70 km from there), it did eventually get a train station. But after a well-known cheap airline stopped using the airport the station was downgraded to a request stop
 

Ianno87

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A similar thing happened at Luebeck airport, Germany (also known as 'Hamburg' despite being 70 km from there), it did eventually get a train station. But after a well-known cheap airline stopped using the airport the station was downgraded to a request stop

It'd odd that Blackpool has always been in close proximity to Squires Gate railway station, possibly one of the longest rail-connected airports in Britain.

I wonder what % of air passengers arrived by rail? (Probably tiny, I know...)
 
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