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Liverpool John Lennon airport

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9:09 am, January 26, 2010
Peel Airports losses widen to £13.1m

By James Chapelard

Peel Airports has seen its losses widen after a drop in revenue.

Revenues fell to £48.3m from £53.4m in the year to March 2009, reflecting a fall in passenger numbers at all of its three airports, Liverpool John Lennon, Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield and Durham Tees Valley Airport.

Pre-tax losses widened to £13.1m in the year from a loss of £10.9m in 2007/2008.

Peel Group, the airport's owners is currently looking for a buyer for the division, which has been loss making for a number of years.

At Liverpool Airport passenger numbers fell 7.5 per cent to £5.1m which Peel said was largely down to the downturn and the drop in consumer spending.

Peel said that easyJet was continuing to grow its base at the airport with new routes to Bordeaux, Naples and Dubrovnik announced over the summer.

At Robin Hood passengers were down 14 per cent, falling below the 1 million mark to 945,800, largely down to holiday company TUI removing capacity after merging with First Choice. Although TUI has slimmed down its operations from the airport it however continues to enjoy good load factors, Peel said.

The biggest drop was however experienced at Durham Tees where passenger traffic fell 20 per cent to 604,778 due to Flyglobespan reducing capacity and eventually ceasing to operate in January 2009. The airport also lost Ryanair services and Wizz flights. In May the airport also lost a court case against bmibaby after the airline pulled out services. The airport was seeking damages of £12m for breach of contract.

A note in the accounts added: “Peel Airports continuous to invest in its assets at all three airports in ensuring that there continues to be adequate capacity to meet the growth and in doing so creating the platform for profitable return.”

Comments?jchapelard@crain.com