Coventry Airport scheme could create 600 jobs

COVENTRY Airport has suggested that up to 600 new jobs and a wealth of fresh investment into the local community could be created by an initiative to redevelop abandoned former passenger facilities on the site’s south side.

In a move that is likely to spell an end to any lingering ambitions that the airport has a future as a base for large-scale passenger plane services, it has agreed to sell approximately 30 acres of land to Ostrava Property, a newly-formed company within the Rigby Group’s specialist property investment division.

It will develop the site as a manufacturing and distribution hub.

The land – currently covered in concrete and housing the former temporary passenger waiting area for Thomson’s discontinued routes out of Coventry – has been unused for more than seven years.

Freeholder Coventry City Council has been kept informed of the plans.

Coventry’s management team say the scheme will also allow it to upgrade the airport’s existing facilities in line with its established business strategy.

The last passenger flight to use the site was in November 2008, two years before Coventry’s acquisition by entrepreneur Sir Peter Rigby’s Rigby Group.

Peter Burns, president of the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce and chair of the Coventry Airport Consultative Committee, said: “We welcome this news. There is no question that Coventry Airport is a considerable economic asset which brings investment and employment to the area, and this proposed development is another example of that.

“This part of the site has been largely redundant since the ceasing of passenger flights and with the airport developing in a different direction, it makes total sense to bring that area back to economic life.”

Andrew Cox of Ostrava Property said: “It’s a win-win situation. While we focus on building a first rate business hub to serve the business community, the airport will be investing in significantly improved premises close to the airport’s Jet Centre, increasing the throughput of executive passengers and making the area even more attractive to outside businesses and investors.”