Airport ‘not viable’ top officer tells councillors

ONE of the Westcountry’s two major commercial airports is not financially viable, councillors have been warned – and is in too perilous a financial position to even secure a loan.

Cornwall Council’s head of finance made the statement about Cornwall Airport Newquay yesterday as it faces a financial crisis.

Alongside Exeter Airport, Cornwall Airport Newquay has a vital role in supporting the tourist and business economies of the South West peninsula.

But the Cornish airport has seen a dramatic drop in income this year due to the double hit of the collapse of regional airline FlyBe and the coronavirus pandemic.

There was better news on Monday that Flybe has been bought out of administration, but as things stand Cornwall Airport is not a viable company, the authority’s top finance officer, Tracie Langley, said.

The admission came at a meeting of the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee. It followed a question from councillor Stephen Rushworth, who asked whether the council would have to provide financial support to keep the airport open.

He said the facility was important for Cornwall and that there was concern about its future.

Ms Langley said that the council was asking the Government to provide financial support but, to date, it had offered only a loan.

Ms Langley said that while the council could secure a loan, the airport itself could not.

CORNWALL Council’s head of finance has said that Cornwall Airport Newquay is not currently viable as it looks at how to address its current financial crisis.

The airport has seen a dramatic drop in income this year due to the double hit of the collapse of regional airline FlyBe and the coronavirus pandemic.

Yesterday Cornwall councillors heard from the authority’s top finance officer, who said that the airport was “not a viable company”.

The admission came at a meeting of the council’s customer and support services overview and scrutiny committee.

It followed councillor Stephen Rushworth asking what the situation was with the airport and whether the council would have to provide financial support to keep it open.

He said that the airport was important for Cornwall and that there was concern about its future.

Tracie Langley, the council’s chief operating officer, said that the council was asking the Government to provide financial support to help the airport but said that, to date, the Government had only offered to provide a loan.

Ms Langley said: “Cornwall Airport Limited is not a viable company at the moment.”

She said that while the Government offered a loan that was not what was wanted by the council and said that the council had its own ability to secure a loan if necessary.

However she said that as the airport itself was not currently viable it would not be able to secure a loan itself.

Last month the council’s Cabinet agreed that it would use £5.6million of £10.2m of funding which has been earmarked for Spaceport Cornwall to bail out the airport if it was unable to secure funding from the Government.

Ms Langley told the committee: “If our Cabinet believe that they want to make cash available to the airport because the Government has not been able to help they have already made it known that they will utilise the money we have for the spaceport.”

Cllr Rushworth said: “We have to appreciate that we are not the only ones in the country and the Government has different priorities. I think they can’t pay us and not anybody else. I think it will be a while before any money comes from the Government.”

He asked Ms Langley if Corserv, the council owned company responsible for the airport, would be able to obtain a loan. She replied: “It would be acceptable but they have the same problem in that Cornwall Airport Limited is not viable because of the problems they have at the moment.”