As mentioned back at the beginning of April, Belfast City Airport has now formally been put up for sale by owners Ferrovial. Having bought BAA, Ferrovial are now keen to recoup some cash (BHD price tag estimated at £100m) to lessen their estimated €30bn debt continuing their trend of disposing of some more Australian, European and UK assets.
Still no word on the anticipated runway extension - which could affect the sale price.
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Any potential buyer should be aware that the runway extension is not 'a done deal'. Politicians from East Belfast, South Belfast and North Down are voicing their concern about the over-development of the City Airport and its impact on people's homes, schools, air pollution, wildlife in Victoria Park etc etc.
The runway extension means at least an extra 6,000 flights a year from Ryanair alone - it's going to have a devastating impact on tens of thousands of people. Estate agents reckon that you could knock 10% off the value of your house if it's under a flightpath.
Planning will more than likely have to acknowledge that there are serious problems with having an airport so close to large populations. They could not conceivably let this go through without - at the very least - a full public inquiry. If they did they would be betraying all of the people who are so badly affected by the aircraft's flightpaths. We pay taxes and rates and deserve some sort of protection from our civil servants.
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