A DISUSED UK airport could serve more than a million people every single year, if it is given the investment it needs to reopen.
Aviation experts have analysed the potential of the transport hub near the south coast and predicted that hundreds of thousands of people could benefit from it resuming activity, 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 safeguarded for general aviation use since 2014 and there are still those who hope flights will return there in the near future.
Those who want to see it reopen were given a boost this week after aviation consultants from EA Maven said it could serve as many as a million people using different aircraft.
They include small fixed-wing electric and vertical take-off aircraft, which could jet off from the airport across the country.
Reports produced by the aviation experts claimed that Plymouth could become connected to as many as 28 different UK airports, saving travellers time and money.
What’s more, the added flights would increase their access to connecting flights heading to international destinations.
Darrell Swanson from the company also believes that the local area could benefit from “considerable economic gains”.
He told the Plymouth Herald: “It is perfectly feasible. Plymouth has a great opportunity to develop regional routes within the UK that would give opportunities for international flights.
“As long as they can carry the passengers they can make enough money.”
According to the consultants’ analysis, 43 small aircraft using Plymouth to service 28 routes could carry as many as 850,500 passengers a year.
What’s more, a further 161,200 passengers could be carried via vertical take-off planes.
Overall, this would bring more than £24million worth of economic boost to Plymouth.
This information was shared in two separate reports, both shared via the EA Maven LinkedIn page.
Darren said that he hopes EA Maven’s reports will encourage people to invest in the project.
He added: “We are hoping to catalyse the market, to suggest it could be possible.”
Other Abandoned UK Airports
Plymouth isn’t the only abandoned UK airport with plans to reopen in the near future.
Doncaster Sheffield Airport could launch new TUI flights soon, after current landowners, Peel, agreed on an 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, having been 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 kept in regular contact with them since the structural review of the former DSA site was announced.”
Elsewhere, Manston Airport in Kent has plans for budget flights from airlines like Ryanair and easyJet.
The airport has been closed since 2014, but the director of its owners, Tony Freudmann, is hopeful that they could welcome back budget airlines soon.
He told Kent Online: “Once we’re operational, 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 base two or three aircraft there, then we can construct a passenger terminal and have them running out of there probably in less than 12 months.”
However, residents are less enthusiastic about the airport’s future, with some questioning whether airlines even wanted to service the travel hub.
David Stanbury wrote to the Plymouth Herald earlier this year, saying: “The elephant in the room is the complete lack of any airline willing to operate flights from Plymouth. None think it viable.”
Meanwhile, campaign group, FlyPlymouth have been seeking to reopen the airport for years has grander ambitious, suggesting the airport could launch flights to Europe in the future.
The group’s chief executive Raoul Witherall has also argued that there is still a good economic case for having flights to and from the city, which could even include routes to Amsterdam.
He previously stated: “Commercial aviation opportunities at Plymouth have never been as strong as they are now.”
Meanwhile, this abandoned UK airport has plans for Ryanair and easyJet flights.
And this giant disused airport is going to be bulldozed and turned into a brand new city.
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