How can city compete with transport big boys?

“WIKI- "In 2009, 157,933 passengers passed through the airport, a sharp increase of 34.0% on the 2008 total of 117,823 making Plymouth one of the only UK airports experiencing significant growth during the period. However, following the withdrawal of London flights in early 2011, the airport's owners said passenger totals had fallen to fewer than 100 a day. The London Stock Exchange was notified on 28 April 2011 that the airport would close by the end of the year"

So the airport was a goldmine, but then there was a "withdrawal of London flights" and things went pear-shaped.
Therefore the key question is who was responsible for deciding to withdraw the London flights which sounded the death knell for the airport?”

“3 points :-
- I understand one member of Viable is the ex manager of Air Southwest so he must know why things went wrong (please spill the beans) and how things could be made to work.
- The core need for Plymouth is good transport links to the main business centres in the British Isles e.g. London City, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow, Newcastle, Dublin plus possibly Jersey, Amsterdam and Paris. If I want to go to the Mediterranean, I'm happy to use Exeter, Newquay or Bristol.
- Plymouth Council is blind to the needs of the city and surrounding areas and totally incompetent for signing contracts which favour the second party like the airport lease and the incinerator.”

“Good point jannerflight could be a game of poker going on here I think.On one hand the council has the land designated for airport use in the local land plan so SSH cant currently realise the full development value of their airport lease.On the other hand how does Viable or whoever get them to sell the lease at an affordable price.It all boils down to whether SHH can make more money from selling the airport lease or holding on to it for property development and whether Viable can afford their asking price.I suspect that SHH will be prepared to sit on their asset until the storm passes as it were.So the question is can Viable or the council afford to do the same? Who is going to blink first.”

“Backhanders ALL round.”

“If only Plymouth had a newspaper, with journalists, it might shine a light under a few rocks and see what crawled out. Tragically, we have the Herald.”

“Whether you want the airport back or not it seems everybody has forgotten the biggest player in all this and that is Sutton Harbour Holdings, Whether you like it or not and if rumours are to be belived they turned down £10million for the lease from interested parties, it is going to take a very substantial sum of money to get it off them and in this present financial climate who is going to invest in something where there is not going to be an instant return on that sum of money invested?”

“"My friend recently bought rail tickets (2 adults and 2 children) with the family rail card to go to Bristol Temple Meads and onward bus journey to Bristol Airport (return) and paid no more than £60.00."

I'd love to know how they managed that. It's a journey I and my family also unfortunately have to do now, the cheapest advance tickets we managed to find with said railcard were over £100 and took the best part of three hours each way. The airport bus alone is £36 rtn if booked separately. That's alright if you are travelling on a budget and don't mind the time/hassle, but it does no favors for promoting Plymouth as a well connected destination. Outlining the transport options for visiting friends/clients is frankly embarrassing and justifies the '**** end of nowhere' comments frequently received.

"Why did Plymouth Airport close? Because passenger numbers dropped - simple as that - economics. Whats going to be different, if the airport reopens?"

I'm afraid it wasn't as simple as that. The last consultant's report before closure identified TWO operational models by which Plymouth Airport could be run profitably. But thanks to the lease agreement Sutton Harbor were under no obligation to try running it under a different model, and were allowed to close the airport instead. So it should be no surprise that Viable say they can operate it profitably along the lines of the models already identified. And as for passenger numbers, look at the global economic climate - that is why passenger numbers dropped across the UK and globe. It's not a unique issue to Plymouth.”

“There is still one very large unanswered question, probably because the council want to avoid it. Why was a company involved in property development allowed to buy an airport with valuable land assets and a built in ' Armageddon' clause which incentivised them to prove the airport was a failure? It was never in doubt that Sutton Harbour Group were going to cash in on that windfall, close the airport and make a mint for their shareholders ( most of whom probably do not even know where Plymouth is). No wonder after 37000 signatures against that decision certain council members will now be having sleepless nights. There must be an investigation into that transaction which at best is incompetent and at worst, criminal.”

“I recently saw an old photo of a rail ticket with a very significant historic value and a most important message for us here in Plymouth today.So what you may ask is that to do with the current airport debate.Let me explain.This rail ticket was part of a batch of tickets printed by the old Great Western Railway in 1912 intended to be used for "Ocean passengers" transferring from a certain transatlantic ship onto trains for onward travel to London Paddington at Plymouths Millbay Ocean terminal inside Millbay docks.Now here is the interesting bit.The ticket details state the following.

Plymouth to LONDON Paddington via Dawlish... 15/0 shillings THIRD CLASS

ISSUED ON BOARD WHITE STAR LINE LINE SS "TITANIC".

Yes that is right SS TITANIC! had she survived her maiden voyage she would have been a regular visitor to Plymouth.That was how important Plymouth was then to the nation transport wise.The Great Westerns railway (GWR) at Millbay and the London and Southwestern Railway (LSWR) at Richmond walk Stonehouse therefore both competed to get passengers and mail to London as fast as they could because you could save a days travel by disembarking them at Plymouth rather than Southhampton.In 1904 a GWR "Ocean Mail special" covered the 245 rail miles from Plymouth to London via Bristol in just 3 hours 46 minutes not bad considering todays Great Western high speed trains take 3hours+ to cover the shorter 225 mile direct route from Plymouth to London via Westbury which was not opened until 1906.Thus Plymouth was effectively then performing the role that the major London airports perform today.However the coming of the jet age consigned all of that to history of course and we are where we are now as it were.

Unfortunately Plymouth is now viewed as largely peripheral in the modern world so the challenge then is to try to re-establish the connectivity that Plymouth once had which is going to be be very difficult without major Government support given the lack of the economic drivers that once existed here as can be seen by our rail link to London being effectively ignored in the Governments latest massive £9.4billion rail investment plans for elsewhere in the country.Road improvements,well you can forget that now in the 21st century.So that just leaves the possibility of air links but the economics of a third regional airport in Devon and Cornwall as has already been mentioned here look a bit shaky to say the least and not to mention the local politics of it all as well.
Plymouth really does seem stuck between a rock and a hard place transport and economy wise in a 21st century and that is going to leave us dangerously isolated if nothing is done about it soon.History is full of examples of the economic decline and depopulation of even large cities that have failed to keep pace with the rest of the world transport wise.”

“My friend recently bought rail tickets (2 adults and 2 children) with the family rail card to go to Bristol Temple Meads and onward bus journey to Bristol Airport (return) and paid no more than £60.00.

I personally take the car and pay for parking - great airport to get in and out of.”