'Birmingham should buy Coventry Airport, then bulldoze it' says academic
08.11.05
Birmingham Airport should buy Coventry Airport and bulldoze it, according to an expert.
John Kirk, head of business development at the University of Central England in Birmingham, believes the airport at Baginton should be turned into a housing estate.
Birmingham International Airport (BIA) last week announced expansion plans.
Mr Kirk says that if BIA felt Coventry was harming its own expansion scheme then it should simply take it over.
He dubbed Coventry airport a "non starter" and said: "Coventry is starting from scratch, and it's going to take hundreds of millions of pounds to introduce the kind of infrastructure required to entice business from new airlines.
"But you need some corporate muscle to grow an airport. You need some market visibility because airlines are just going to ask Coventry why they should take a leap of faith by going there rather than Birmingham."
Mr Kirk said BIA's plans were "realistic", and added that the company should buy Coventry Airport, and build homes on it.
Mr Kirk was head of public relations at Manchester Airport during its expansion in the early 1990s, when the larger airport's plans were compromised by those of the much smaller Liverpool Airport.
Archy Muir, of the Campaign Against the Expansion of Coventry Airport (CAECA), said he would be delighted for Coventry airport to be flattened.
He said: "Birmingham is the region's main airport, and helping it become a major airport would bring more to the economy of Coventry and Warwickshire than increasing the numbers of holidaymakers flying to Baginton."
BIA said the number of passengers using the airport annually was expected to rise to more than 30 million.
TUI, which manages Coventry Airport, hopes it will be used by two million passengers annually.
But because the airports are just 11 miles apart, fears have already been raised by BIA's managing director Richard Heard about the amount of air traffic which will be concentrated above the city's skies.
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