Proposed sale of Coventry Airport should not come as a big surprise
15.10.05
The fact that Coventry Airport is up for sale - or open to offers - should not come as a big surprise. The TUI travel empire includes a handful of cruise liners, 400 hotels, 800 travel agents and 45 planes but just the one airport. Running airports is not its business.
However, the suggestion that it has been offered to Birmingham International Airport and that they might be prepared to deal - at a more favourable price - is a different matter altogether.
Since TUI bought Coventry Airport in February 2004, Birmingham International's disquiet grew steadily in private to the point where they went public with their misgivings earlier this year.
Then it went beyond that to the current state of play, where Birmingham is to be the major objector at an forthcoming public inquiry into a permanent terminal at Coventry Airport. Now that Warwick District Council, the planning authority formally opposed to expansion at Coventry Airport, has entered into a conditional agreement with management over compensation packages for affected residents, January's inquiry will to all intents and purposes be Coventry versus Birmingham.
Birmingham International's concerns about Coventry are said to be twofold. Coventry operations could constrain airspace when and if Birmingham extends its existing runway and builds a new second runway. In addition, the existence of an established Coventry Airport, operating at around 2 million passengers a year by the end of the decade, could seriously harm the business case for Birmingham's second runway.
However, whether knocking out those concerns is worth buying a new airport which is not blessed with adequate infrastructure and dogged by bitter local opposition, is open to question.
Apart from January's inquiry into the permanent terminal at Coventry, the worst seems to be over for TUI and this may be why it is now ready to sell. Bill Savage, the managing director at Coventry airport, told The Birmingham Post last night that from the moment TUI bought the airport, expressions of interest were received.
'TUI took the line that the planning issues had to be dealt with responsibly first. But about half a dozen major airport operators have stayed the course. But now, as I say, I can see a light at the end of the tunnel on those planning issues, TUI would be silly not to consider selling the 142-year lease on the airport because airports are not part of their core business.'
'One day, I am sure a partnership will be entered into or the lease will be sold to an operator. Whether that is now, at the end of the first planning inquiry, or next April at the end of the second, I don't know.'
He was keen to stress that whatever happened TUI's commitment to Coventry was total. 'That is why there is a clause in the lease agreement that commits TUI to growing the Thomsonfly business at Coventry Airport. That clause would transfer if another operator bought it.'
As to whether Birmingham International was approached by Coventry Airport or vice versa, Mr Savage would only say: 'That is like a playground tale of who kissed who first.'
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