Airport boss predicts passenger decline
07.03.09
Hopes for an increase in passengers using Birmingham Airport have been dashed by the recession, its chief executive has said. Paul Kehoe, who took over as boss at the airport last July, told MPs at a committee meeting that growth had ground to a halt and may not pick up until 2012. He also admitted the airport expected to miss its target of reaching 18 million passengers by 2017, but said that it should still extend its runway, to allow it to introduce more long haul flights.
Mr Kehoe said many UK airports were suffering even more than Birmingham. But he said it would not be possible to meet a passenger target he had been set when he first became chief executive. He said: ‘What we are seeing in the UK as a whole is a decline in traffic. If you look at the statistics from the CAA website, the trend over the past 3 months is down 10 percent. So Manchester is down 10 percent, Gatwick down 10 percent.'
‘Birmingham is flatter at the moment. There’s only one reason why Birmingham is flat and that’s the arrival of Ryanair last summer. That actually stabilised our traffic. So we are at zero growth at the moment.’
‘In terms of our business plan, I think we are going to be ambitious and say 18 million by 2020 now, all things being equal, and the start of growth will occur in 2011/2012.’ Mr Kehoe ruled out building a second runway in the near future, but said the airport must press ahead with plans to extend its existing runway.
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