Birmingham International Airport urges businesses to fly from city following Coventry Airport closure

Dec 9 2009 by Catherine Lillington, Birmingham Mail

CITY business leaders have called on firms hit by the closure of one Midlands airport to use Birmingham International instead.

The Civil Aviation Authority confirmed Coventry Airport had shut, yesterday.

Jerry Blackett, chief executive of Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said: “We regret the loss of any transport capacity in our region. We would urge Coventry Airport users to use Birmingham International Airport as their first choice.

“The more we use Birmingham the more attractive it will become so we can extend the number of services out.”

He added while the loss was sad, it did free up airspace for Birmingham International to expand.

“There was always the chance Coventry would have got in the way of the expansion,” he said.

The CAA said Coventry Airport’s owner, West Midlands Airport Ltd, had issued a Notice to Airmen informing them of the closure.

The owners had been due to appear in the High Court today to respond to a winding-up petition.

The airport has not been used for scheduled passenger flights since airline Thomsonfly ceased operations in November 2008. Since then, Coventry has been operating as a cargo terminal and base for executive jets and aviation-related businesses.