Boss' delight over councils Coventry airport U-turn
30.09.05
Coventry Airport boss, Bill Savage, today outlined plans to double passenger numbers and increase the choice of UK and European destinations from the midlands airport over the next few years. The blueprint includes new flights to popular sunshine destinations such as Tenerife, and to short break destinations such as Dublin and Munich.
Mr Savage's comments follow an emergency meeting of Warwick District Council's planning committee this week, at which members, in principal approved a permanent passenger terminal at Coventry Airport (see this earlier coventry airport news story). The council represented the last local stumbling block before the expansion plans go to a public inquiry in January.
Mr Savage said he and his team were confident the inquiry would rule in the airport's favour. He said he looked forward to expanding the facility, more than doubling its passenger numbers over the next three years. He also outlined plans to create between 1000 and 1500 new jobs over that period.
If the plans are given the go-ahead, Mr Savage is looking to increase the number of destinations and bring in more no-frills airlines. Although there are no concrete plans in place he included among the most popular destination choices he would like to introduce were Tenerife, Geneva, Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Munich and Frankfurt.
'We are looking to provide a major increase in the number of destinations people can fly to from Coventry. This includes destinations at major cities throughout the UK, including Belfast and Dublin, and as well as more European leisure destinations, there will be more business flights. It will be predominantly low-cost carriers operating from the airport.'
'By the end of this calendar year we will have done about 800,000 passengers per year through the interim passenger facilities. What we have been looking to do for the last 10 years, and especially in the last 18 months since TUI took over, is to get approval for a new terminal and airport parking facilities at Coventry Airport which will cater for up to two million passengers a year,' he said.
To book coventry airport hotels or coventry airport parking at the lowest price, click on these links to two great coventry airport parking and coventry airport hotels price comparison websites.
