Huge boost for once-popular UK airport hoping to reopen for 1st time in decade

By Kevin Colleran On Jul 12, 2023

A UK airport that once saw hundreds of thousands of passengers has been given a huge boost to reopen.

Plymouth Airport was forced to close back in 2011 – but hopes to relaunch passenger flights.

A UK airport has been given fresh hope in reopening to the publicCredit: BPM

Plymouth Airport was forced to close in 2011 after London flights were scrappedCredit: BPM

The airport had as many as 157,000 passengers flying through it in 2009, but this dwindled to just hundreds when London flights pulled out.

And more than a decade later, the airport could soon reopen to passengers.

Currently owned by The Sutton Harbour Group, the local council is looking to gain control again of the site.

Council leader Tudor Evans told local media: “I have instructed council officers to do everything possible to see if we can acquire the lease which would give the council control of what happens to the site. Negotiations are ongoing.”

Huge boost in bid to reopen much-loved UK airport

UK airport that has a beer garden right next to the runway

“It should be the council making these decisions for the benefit of the public, not private property developers.”

He added that it was a “huge disappointment” when it closed.

He said: “No one in the city wanted it to close, least of all me.”

Last December, a plan for the “redevelopment of the site with a range of appropriate uses within the timeframe of the safeguard which expires in early 2024” was believed to be in the works.

And FlyPlymouth chief executive Raoul Witherall said there was still a good economic case for bringing back flights to and from the city, which could even include routes to Amsterdam.

Plymouth Airport first opened in 1931, and was opened by the then Prince of Wales, Edward VIII.

Airlines that operated from the airport included Air Wales and Air Southwest with flights to both Wales and London.

However, daily passengers dropped as low as 100 after Air Southwest scrapped the Plymouth to London routes.

The airport was then forced to close in 2011.

Another airport in the UK is hoping to restart scheduled passenger flights for the first time in nearly 20 years.

It comes after Doncaster Sheffield Airport closed for good in October 2022 after airline Wizz Air ceased operations.

The council hopes to take over and reopen the airportCredit: BPM

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