6 July 2015
FlyPlymouth, the company trying to reopen Plymouth Airport, has successfully raised £20,000 from a Crowdfunder campaign. The original target of £10,000 was quickly passed so FlyPlymouth doubled it, and now the company is setting to work on a business plan.
“Our business plan needs to be tested and worked up with technical due diligence,” said Raoul Witherall, FlyPlymouth’s chief executive, talking to the Plymouth Herald. The plan would see FlyPlymouth to raise investment and attempt to acquire the lease from Plymouth City Council.
At the moment, a long lease is held by developers Sutton Harbour Holdings, which closed the airport in 2011 after telling the council it was not commercially viable to continue flights. Mr Witherall told the newspaper, “We want the council to purchase SHH’s interest and sell us a lease.”
FlyPlymouth intends to prove an airline can operate profitably, and that an operating airport would contribute up to £26million into Plymouth’s economy annually, justifying the capital expenditure needed. The aim is to open the airport as a ‘social enterprise’ within two years, and start the airline in three.
