Whilst the Chancellor pandered to the motoring lobby by maintaining the long term freeze on motor fuel duty, Cornwall Council’s Cabinet have, in a similar vein, given in to the flying lobby, and Ryanair in particular, by refusing to countenance a charge on air passengers at Newquay Airport.
At their meeting on 13 November, the Cabinet considered the Draft Budget for next year and one of the potential savings identified by officers had been the imposition of a £10 per head fee on departing passengers at Newquay Airport in order to mitigate the large taxpayer subsidy for the operation of the airport. The proposal and the Cabinet response were as follows:
"That a fee of £10.00 per passenger, for all passengers aged 17 years or over departing Cornwall Airport, be introduced from 1 April 2025, whether as a carbon reduction fee or whatever description is appropriate, and the Cabinet request Cornwall Airport to commence the necessary steps to implement this.”
"Cabinet members have considered the recommendation and given the rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD) announced at the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024, do not feel this is supportive to the industry or aims of increasing passenger numbers. This is therefore not included in the draft budget proposals.”
Cabinet member Louis Gardner is quoted as, "Ryanair, in particular, are very clear – they will pull out and they have done before; they have proven it. If you lose Ryanair you will lose 50 per cent of all passengers immediately. You lose all your international winter flights immediately.”
If Newquay Airport is to have any positive effect on the Cornish economy it is by bringing people into the county, people who otherwise might not have come here, and those people spending money here. Ryanair’s flies out of Newquay to Spain (Alicante and Malaga) and Portugal (Faro). Overwhelmingly, these flights are for the benefit of people who live in Cornwall to spend their holidays in another country thus having no positive effect on the Cornish economy and probably a negative impact. Yet, so obsessed are the Cabinet of Cornwall Council to maintain what they think is a great status symbol of an airport that they are prepared to splurge a continuing stream of taxpayers’ money on to this white elephant.
Meanwhile, bus passengers can only look forward to increasing fares and probably reduced services.