Flights will resume on 20 December, 2008
Newquay Cornwall Airport, which transferred from Ministry of Defence to Cornwall County Council ownership on 1 December, has been granted a new civilian licence by the UK Civil Aviation Authority following a number of inspections this week. Air Traffic Control is open from today, Friday 19 December and it is expected that flights will resume on Saturday 20 December. Passengers are advised to contact their airlines.
Cornwall County Council's Executive Member for the Economy Andrew Mitchell (Lib Dem) said: "We are obviously delighted that we have achieved certification and designation from the Civil Aviation Authority and are now able to reopen the airport to commercial flights. Having worked closely with the CAA over the past few weeks I would like to thank them for all of their assistance. "Cornwall now has an airport to be proud of."
He added: "I would like to thank all our passengers for their patience and support during our temporary closure. I appreciate being transferred by road to alternative airports will have inconvenienced them and I am very grateful for their tolerance." He also thanked the RAF for its support and assistance and everyone else involved in the project for their commitment to meeting the new deadline.
"I am really looking forward to watching our new civil airport go from strength to strength in the coming years. We have exciting plans for the growth and development of the airport to benefit Cornwall as a whole."
Airport Operations Director Al Titterington added: "It's all systems go now and I'm really looking forward to being able to welcome our passengers to their new civil airport. We have some of the best aerodrome facilities in the country with modern state of the art equipment in which to safely manage flight operations and an excellent operations team I am proud to be leading. We have a fabulous new air traffic control tower and brand new Navaids to manage flights into and out of Newquay Cornwall Airport with a super team of qualified and experienced air traffic controllers who are eager to get to work."
Colin Jarvis, Deputy Director of Planning, Transportation and Estates noted: "Taking over the running of the aerodrome from the MoD was an enormously complex project, firstly because the aerodrome was treated as a ‘Greenfield' site by the Civil Aviation Authority, which has meant we have had to build an entirely new aerodrome. Secondly the project has been carried out on a live airfield, where we continued to maintain daily civilian flights, rather than a complete closure for a period of months, whilst construction was carried out.
Works involved in the construction of a new civil aerodrome at Newquay Cornwall Airport:
In addition to the transition project, other construction works include:
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