A USED UK airport could serve more than a million people every year if it gets the investment needed to reopen.
Aviation experts have analyzed the potential of the transport hub near the south coast and predicted that hundreds of thousands of people could benefit from the resumption of operations, if not more.
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Since 2011, Plymouth Airport has been closed following the cancellation of the Air Southwest service to London Gatwick.
However, the airport has been cleared for general aviation use since 2014 and there are still those who hope that flights will return in the near future.
Those wanting to see it again got a boost this week after EA Maven aviation consultants said it could serve as many as a million people with a variety of aircraft.
This includes small electric and vertical take-off fixed-wing aircraft, which can fly from the airport throughout the country.
Reports from the aviation experts claimed that Plymouth could be connected to as many as 28 different UK airports, saving travelers time and money.
Furthermore, the added flights would increase their access to connecting flights to international destinations.
The company’s Darrell Swanson also believes the local region could benefit from “significant economic benefits”.
He told the Plymouth Herald: “It is completely feasible. Plymouth has a great opportunity to develop regional routes within Britain that offer opportunities for international flights.
“As long as they can carry the passengers, they can make enough money.”
According to the consultants’ analysis, 43 small planes using Plymouth on 28 routes could carry as many as 850,500 passengers a year.
In addition, an additional 161,200 passengers could be transported via vertical take-off aircraft.
In total, this would provide Plymouth with an economic boost worth more than £24 million.
This information was shared in two separate reports, both shared via the EA Maven LinkedIn page.
Darren said he hopes EA Maven’s reports will encourage people to invest in the project.
He added: “We hope to catalyze the market and suggest that this could be possible.”
Other abandoned UK airports
Plymouth isn’t the only abandoned British airport with plans to reopen in the near future.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport could soon launch new TUI flights after current landowners, Peel, agreed a 125-year lease of the airport to Doncaster Council.
Doncaster Mayor Ros Jones has confirmed that TUI will operate from the airport when it reopens after being closed since 2022.
He said: “Following our lease announcement last month, we have heard from TUI that they are keen to return to our airport. We have been in regular contact with them since announcing the structural review of the former DSA site.”
Elsewhere, Manston Airport in Kent has plans for budget flights from airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.
The airport has been closed since 2014, but the owners’ director, Tony Freudmann, is hopeful they will soon be able to welcome budget airlines again.
He told Kent Online: “Once we’re up and running and people like Ryanair or easyJet come to us and say we’d like to fly from your airport and base two or three aircraft there, then we can do that.” build a passenger terminal and probably empty them there within 12 months.”
However, residents are less enthusiastic about the airport’s future and some question whether airlines will want to serve the travel hub.
David Stanbury wrote to the Plymouth Herald earlier this year: “The elephant in the room is the complete lack of an airline willing to operate flights from Plymouth. No one considers this feasible.”
Meanwhile, campaign group FlyPlymouth has been trying to reopen the airport for years and has bigger ambitions, suggesting the airport could launch flights to Europe in the future.
The group’s CEO, Raoul Witherall, has also argued that there is still a good economic case for having flights to and from the city, including even routes to Amsterdam.
He previously stated: “Plymouth’s commercial aviation capabilities have never been stronger than they are today.”
Meanwhile, this abandoned British airport has plans for Ryanair and easyJet flights.
And this gigantic, disused airport will be bulldozed and turned into a brand new city.
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