Birmingham Airport boss expects passenger decline
07.03.09
Hopes for an increase in the number of passengers using Birmingham Airport have been dashed by the recession, its chief executive has told the Birmingham Mail. Paul Kehoe, who took over as boss at the airport last July, said growth had ground to a halt and may not pick up until 2012. He also admitted the airport was expected to miss its target of reaching 18 million passengers by 2017, but said that it should still press ahead with plans to extend its runway, to allow it to introduce long haul flights.
Mr Kehoe said many airports were suffering even more than Birmingham. But he said it would not be possible to meet a target he had been set when he first became chief executive. He said: ‘What we are seeing in the UK as a whole is a decline in traffic. If you look at the statistics from the Civil Aviation Authority website, the trend over the past three months is down ten percent. So Manchester is down ten percent, Gatwick down ten percent.'
‘Birmingham is flatter at the moment, and there’s only one reason why Birmingham is flat and that’s the arrival of Ryanair, who came in last summer. That actually stabilised our traffic. So we are at zero growth at the moment.’
‘In terms of our business plan and 2017, I think we are going to be ambitious and say 18 million by 2020 now, all things being equal, and the start of growth will occur in 2011/2012.’ Mr Kehoe ruled out building a second runway in the near future, but said the airport must press ahead with plans to extend its existing runway.'
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