NEC boss downbeat on Birmingham Airport expansion
21.01.09
A runway extension at Birmingham Airport will not be the ‘silver bullet’ that catapults the region into the global cities league, the Post reports that National Exhibition Centre chief executive Paul Thandi has said. He added that the £120million expansion would be the beginning of a long journey, and that the NEC and local councils would have to work hard to attract new airlines and improve the tourism offer for visitors.
Giving evidence to a Birmingham city council scrutiny committee, Mr Thandi said he supported a longer runway, which would allow long haul flights to China, India and the west coast of America. He said that the extension would give the NEC an edge in attempting to win exhibitions from the US and the Far East, as exhibitors and delegates from these countries were insistent they would only use a conference centre accessible by air and would not come to Birmingham if that meant travelling via Heathrow or Manchester.
However, Mr Thandi warned against complacency. He said: ‘The runway extension is not a silver bullet. It will not automatically get millions of pounds of business and Birmingham will not become an international city overnight. It will be a beginning and we will be able to start to compete with cities like Manchester.’ He also called for the runway extension to be linked with a high speed rail service between New Street Station, the airport and NEC.
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