Airport could evolve as hub for executive jet charters to capital

The future of Plymouth airport could lie in its potential to serve a growing executive market, according to a Westcountry transport analyst.

Neill Mitchell believes that Plymouth airport still has commercial viability and, indeed, scope for growth, as a hub for chartered business flights to the capital and beyond.

The Tavistock-based expert’s views echo those of Plymouth City Councillor Jonathan Drean, who has called for an extension of the airport’s existing runway to facilitate such a move.

Plymouth has been divided over the potential impact of Monday’s end to Air Southwest flights to Gatwick upon the local economy.

The airline was initially set up by airport owner Sutton Harbour Holdings in 2003 to take over BA routes to the capital and maintain London links into Plymouth.

Sutton Harbour made a loss of around £7.3million on the airline when it completed its sale of Air Southwest to Eastern Airlines in December.

While speculation mounts over the future of a regional domestic airport with no capital link, Sutton Harbour has said it has no comment to make over the airport it describes as an “important strategic asset for the city.”

In a terse statement issued this week, it said: “We do not intend to make any knee-jerk reactions based on the loss of one route, but prefer to take a longer view.

“It is no secret that the airport loses money, as do many regional airports.

“Newquay for example loses more than Plymouth but its important contribution to the region is recognised and we believe Plymouth City Airport should be viewed in the same way.”

Plymouth’s Chamber of Commerce has called for the City Council to undertake a detailed study on the value of airport – and its scheduled UK links – to the local economy.

Chamber chief executive David Parlby said that an up-to-date reckoning on the value of the airport’s input would provide a basis upon which to consider pay-back subsidies for services.

Mr Parlby said: “Plymouth needs an airport offering scheduled services to London city airport and also to a UK-based international gateway such as Gatwick or Birmingham.”

While Plymouth City Council leader Vivien Pengelly, ruled out taxpayer support for the Plymouth-Gatwick connection, saying “subsidising a commercial operation that is not being supported by passenger numbers,” she added that there was merit in following up the Chambers’s proposal to commission a study on the airport’s economic input.

Yet Peter Gripaios, Emeritus Professor of Economics at the University of Plymouth said that he believed the airport's days are “probably numbered”, with its catchment just too small for long-term viability.

He said: “It's being squeezed by flights into Newquay and Exeter, and even more probably by the fact that easyJet and Ryanair have loads and loads of flights going out of Bristol.”

Meanwhile, a recent survey by Bishop Fleming for the Western Morning News demonstrated, although half of respondents believed the move will impact regional connectivity, fewer than 40 per cent had ever used the service, or done so, regularly.

A sign, according to Neill Mitchell, that Plymouth will continue to conduct business as usual, without a direct route to a London airport.

With city’s burgeoning growth now centred around the university, Science Park and knowledge economy, “you could describe this as an indigenous business community that is not dependent upon London connectivity,” he says.

“In fact, I’m not sure we even have a problem.”

Mr Mitchell believes that Plymouth should regard Exeter Airport as a Westcountry hub a 40 minute drive from the heart of Plymouth - rather than a city satellite.

“When you look at Europe, there are very few cities where you can get to the airport in under 45 minutes,” he says, suggesting that there is a case for Exeter to be re-branded as Devon International or Devon Gateway Airport.

Based upon the journey time of its fastest connection to the capital, Plymouth is just beyond the three-hour surface travel time from the capital – a benchmark recognised internationally as being the threshold at which regional competitiveness for investment can only be sustained by regional air services.

Mr Mitchell believes that demand-led charter air services could provide Plymouth with its connectivity solution.

He compounds Professor Gripaios’ view that Plymouth’s catchment is now too small to act as a hub for scheduled services.

Rather than look to the provision of a scheduled service to London airports necessitating costly slots, he says that Plymouth Airport has potential to become a regional charter hub – which could also provide scope for a savvy entrepreneur to spread their wings– as well as continue in its role as a helicopter base.

“We’ve got to adapt to a new scenario which is not disadvantageous,” said Mr Mitchell. ““I do see a situation where an entrepreneur would set up a charter company, flying a pre-booked Lear into London. All that is possible out of a general aviation airfield.”

Kent-based Biggin Hill airport, serves such private flights and helicopters flying into the capital, completing passenger’s journeys into London via limo.

This base would negate the cost of permanent air slots, with road links from the base into the city taking around 20 minutes longer than the train from Gatwick. But Devon and Cornwall Business Council chairman Tim Jones believes that while charters might provide Plymouth with a solution and reduce management overheads in the short term, the airport has longer-term prospects for scheduled links within the next five years, as smaller commercial aircraft able to negotiate the Plymouth runway limits become available to airlines,

He said: “Plymouth needs an airport if it is to fulfil its role as an international city, with an international marketing ambition. Every city with global ambition has an airport - it is a must-have, not an optional extra. That it is not viable today, is just one of those things.

“This is an irreplaceable asset and if we lose it, you’d never get it back within the century, due to costs and environmental impact law.

“This is an airport with a viable future, but there is a need to plan for the long-term.”