News: The Origins of Birmingham Airport's Rivalry
Flights > News > # 587 (01/11/2005)
Flightmapping can exclusively reveal that much of the current antagonism between Birmingham airport management and Coventry dates back long before Thomsonfly arrived on the scene.
Birmingham airport expressed an interest in purchasing Coventry airport back in 1993, when the city council had put it up the sale. Using information obtained back in May under the Freedom of information act, we can reveal that a without prejudice letter was sent by Bob Taylor, managing director of Birmingham international airport, on 7th May 1993. This letter stated that:
"Coventry has the potential to offer SIGNIFICANT ADVANTAGE over Birmingham for general aviation, cost conscious leisure operators, parcels and pure freight operations."
Coventry airport has had plans for permanent passenger terminal for a number of years, although the current submission for a renewal of planning permission dates to March 2003. It has been widely speculated that Thomsonfly would have been interested in operating flights from Birmingham, before choosing to start their flights from Coventry instead.
The fact that Birmingham airport recently turned down the opportunity to buy Coventry for £30 million (regardless of who actually approached who), becomes more relevant when one considers that its price in 1993 would have been significantly less than this.
Coventry airport's previous history is not a pleasant one, and it was widely known that the airport was losing some £1 million per year. Although the circumstances of TUI's takeover of the lease of Coventry airport in February 2004 might very much be described as a fire sale, considering the extensive obstacles being placed in its way by Warwick district Council, there is no doubt that TUI got an excellent deal on this purchase.
Since the launch of Thomsonfly, Coventry airport has seen a dramatic resurgence in its fortunes, with further growth anticipated once the new terminal gets approval. Growth in passenger numbers from zero to 2 million per year might seem like a drop in the ocean when compared to Birmingham's own ambitions to handle up to 35 million passengers per year, but the very existence of a competing airport so close by gives the airlines who are based at Birmingham very good chips with which to negotiate their contracts. This in turn reduces the profitability of the airport's operations, making it harder to them to generate a sufficient return on their investment in future infrastructure projects.
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Comment:
Flightmapping has always supported the "fly local" principle, namely that passengers should always be encouraged to use their local airports were possible, and that development of more flights from regional airports is far more env
