A DISUSED UK airport could serve more than a million people every year if it gets the investment it needs to reopen.
Aviation experts analyzed the potential of the transport hub near the south coast and predicted hundreds of thousands of people, if not more, could benefit from the resumption of operations.
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Since 2011, Plymouth Airport has been closed following the cancellation of Air Southwest’s service to London Gatwick.
However, the airport has been protected for general aviation since 2014 and there are still those who hope that flights will return there in the near future.
Those keen to see it reopened were given a boost this week after aviation consultants from EA Maven said it could serve up to a million people using various aircraft.
These include small electric fixed-wing and vertical take-off aircraft that could take off from airports across the country.
Reports produced by aviation experts claimed that Plymouth could connect with up to 28 different UK airports, saving passengers time and money.
The added flights would also increase their access to connecting flights to international destinations.
The company’s Darrell Swanson also believes the local area could benefit from “significant economic gains”.
He told the Plymouth Herald: “It is absolutely doable. Plymouth has a great opportunity to develop regional routes within the UK which would provide opportunities for international flights.
“As long as they can carry passengers, they can make enough money.”
The 43 small aircraft using Plymouth to serve 28 routes could carry up to 850,500 passengers a year, according to consultants’ analysis.
What’s more, another 161,200 passengers could be transported by vertical take-off aircraft.
In total, this would bring an economic boost worth more than £24m to Plymouth.
This information was shared in two separate messages, both shared via the EA Maven LinkedIn page.
Darren said he hopes the EA Maven news will encourage people to invest in the project.
He added: “We hope to catalyze the market, to indicate that it could be possible.”
Another abandoned British airport
Plymouth is not the only derelict UK airport with plans to reopen in the near future.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport could soon start 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 if it reopens as it has been closed since 2022.
He said: “Following our lease announcement last month we heard from TUI that they wanted to return to our airport, we have been in regular contact with them since the structural review of the former DSA site was announced.”
Elsewhere, Manston Airport in Kent has plans for cheap flights from airlines such as Ryanair and easyJet.
The airport has been closed since 2014, but the director of its owners, Tony Freudmann, hopes they could soon welcome back budget airlines.
He told Kent Online: “Once we’re up and running, if the likes of Ryanair or easyJet come to us and say we’d like to fly out of your airport and we’re going to put two or three planes there, then we can build a passenger terminal and let them run out of there probably in less than 12 months.”
However, residents are less enthusiastic about the airport’s future, with some questioning whether the airlines wanted to serve the travel hub in the first place.
Writing in the Plymouth Herald earlier this year, David Stanbury said: “The elephant in the room is the complete lack of any airline willing to operate from Plymouth. None think they are viable.”
Meanwhile, campaign group FlyPlymouth, which has spent years trying to reopen the airport, has bigger ambitions and suggests the airport could start flights to Europe in the future.
Group chief executive Raoul Witherall also argued that there was still a good economic case for flights to and from the city, which could include routes to Amsterdam.
He previously said: “Commercial aviation opportunities in Plymouth have never been stronger than they are now.
Meanwhile, this abandoned UK airport has plans for Ryanair and easyJet flights.
And this giant disused airport will be bulldozed and transformed into a brand new city.
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