History of UK aerodrome privatisation

The two airfields that I can comment on are Glenrothes (Fife), and Cumbernauld. Both have lasted the test of time under private ownership and it is a matter of debate if this could have been possible if the councils had them. The issue appears to be that they sit on the balance sheets of the companies that own them, massively overvalued, and they are owned and hosted by companies that run their operations from them making it a bit difficult to resell. ie the income numbers are masked.

Issues with this ownership strategy..

1. Customers are at the behest of owners and if the strategy of the owner is to sell, then sell they will. It is not always GA minded purchasers.
2. There is a ‘if you don’t like it leave’ mentality for customers therefore do not fall out with your landlord. This goes for any landlord/tenant relationship.
3. In times of government austerity perhaps assets such as airfields would not get the TLC required to continue by government authorities.
4. I think it is what it is and you can debate the soundness of decisions made decades ago. I think to gain more insight one would have to look at total sales of assets and draw against what still remains? How many now have 3.5 k houses on them?

Blackpool got un-privatised. It’s better for GA now since the airline operation and all the BS this imposed on GA has gone. They’ve also solved their chronic ATC staffing issues, so no longer are opening and shutting every 20 minutes. The council say they have no plans to try and attract any airlines, and want to keep it as a GA facility.

alioth wrote:

Blackpool got un-privatised. It’s better for GA now since the airline operation and all the BS this imposed on GA has gone. They’ve also solved their chronic ATC staffing issues, so no longer are opening and shutting every 20 minutes. The council say they have no plans to try and attract any airlines, and want to keep it as a GA facility.

So how does it make money to maintain such a large runway with an ILS and pay for full-time ATC?

It must have significant commercial rental income? You can’t pay these sorts of bills with light GA landing fees and avgas sales…

James – other than the big ones and the military ones, I’m not sure there was ever much of a network of government-owned aerodromes was there?

Other than those purpose-built as a large passenger airport, most aerodromes seem to have some sort of military background.

The stuff the military disposed of after the last war mostly went back to the pre-war owners under some sort of buy-back option arrangement that existed. They then did whatever they wanted with it. More recent military disposals just get auctioned off to the highest bidder I believe, and the land/planning situation in the UK means that no-one is going to be interested in buying them to operate an aerodrome.

Graham wrote:

So how does it make money to maintain such a large runway with an ILS and pay for full-time ATC?

Do they not still serve as a base for helicopters working the wind turbines?

Graham wrote:

So how does it make money to maintain such a large runway with an ILS and pay for full-time ATC?

• a number of based aircraft, including (I think) a charter operation
• the council may not be requiring it to make money, recognising that every £1 spent on running the airport (which is genuinely useful, with good opening hours and easy ground transportation to the whole Fylde coastal region) likely brings in much more than £1 of economic activity to the local area – in other words, recognising the airport as infrastructure, not a business that must make a profit on its own.
• the large runway hardly needs maintenance – with the airlines gone, GA doesn’t do much if any damage to such a runway, so the runway will likely last for decades with little maintenance.

Many airfields were under the Ministry of Transport/Civil Aviation, with British Rail and nationalised bus and some road transport firms. There was no airport security at Aberdeen, but Ministry Police were there.
Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Glasgow, were successfully privatised, along with the major English Airports.
Prestwick had later to be taken over by the Council.
The other Ministry Scottish Airports were put under HIAL, which is a Quango. (Quasi Autonomous Non- government Organisation.)
Dundee was a Council green-field startup, later taken over by HIAL.
When I first landed at Oban, there were no services, and it was weeks later before I could contact the Council. Paul Keegan started an operation there, and the Council later took over the airfield, and also the Coll and Collonsay strips, which they converted to hardtop.
Glenforsa, (grass) Plockton and Broadford, (both hardtop) were built by the Army for the fixed-wing Air Ambulance. Dornoch is ex WW2, operated by The Highland Council, (as is Broadford, with Plockton effectively operated by Bond Helicopters.) but on community land, and maintained by the Golf Club, with occasional local LAA input.
The Orkney Airfields are Council owned and operated, except for Kirkwall.
Perth was Airwork Services Training, privatised when they disappeared.
Longside was WW2. Owned by Aberdeenshire Council, leased for oil industry helicopters, then abandoned to the Buchan Aero Club, who operate it.