East Worthing & Shoreham MP Tim Loughton has given a cautious welcome to news that Brighton City Airport Ltd has signed a deal with Shoreham Airport leaseholder Albermarle enabling the flying company to continue managing the Airport operations for the next 30 years.
Tim commented:
‘Negotiations with Albermarle have been ongoing for some time now and the uncertainty and rumours that it has generated have not been unhelpful. I am pleased that BCAL will take on the management of the Airport operations on a permanent basis now, having run aviation activities there on a temporary basis and done a good job. BCAL is committed to establishing Shoreham as the centre of its national operations and is only focussed on flying activities already accounting for a half of all touch downs at Shoreham through its successful training school which has been expanding. I look forward to seeing the considerable investment which they have identified to ensure this important Airport goes from strength to strength.
Albermarle still has serious questions to answer about its own intentions regarding the non-flying operations. As part of the deal, Albermarle have undertaken to finance the refurbishment of the Terminal building as they are obliged to under the terms of the lease with Worthing and Brighton & Hove City councils. This is likely to be in the area of £1m and they need to demonstrate that they have the resources to undertake the work and get on with it urgently. There are a number of other issues which they need to finalise with the landlords before we can be confident that the long-term future of the Airport as a whole has been secured, but this is a good start.
I have also agreed to hold a public meeting with the Shoreham Society on October 20th where I hope more details will be forthcoming from those directly involved in the deal.’