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Airport owner sees losses continue

The owner of Durham Tees Valley Airport has seen its losses widen after a drop in revenue.

Peel Airports, which also operates Liverpool John Lennon and Robin Hood Airport in Yorkshire, saw its revenue fall from £53.4m to £48.3m in the year to March 2009. The drop reflects a decline in passenger numbers at all three airports - the biggest reduction being seen at Durham Tees Valley, which experienced a traffic fall of 20% to 604,778.

The fall at Durham has been attributed to Flyglobespan reducing capacity and eventually ending operations at the airport in January 2009. The airport also suffered due to losing Ryanair and Wizz flights in 2009.

Newly-filed accounts show that Peel Airports’ pre-tax losses widened to £13.1m over the year from a loss of £10.9m in 2007/08.

Peel Group, which owns the operator, Peel is in talks to sell a stake in its airports division to an investment partner, but no mention of the process was made in the accounts.

A spokesperson for the group added: “Although the difficult economic climate last year impacted on all airports across the UK, much of the increased loss was associated with a reorganisation within the business.

“Having delivered this, the group is well positioned to realise its future potential as the business comes out of the recession. In recent months new business announcements have been made across the group and Liverpool John Lennon Airport has already seen passenger growth in the past two consecutive months, which is expected to be repeated across the group in the year ahead.”

Durham Tees Valley also announced this week that new flights to Dublin would begin operating from the airport under the Aer Lingus banner.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .