Fwd: Highland Airport Deal Still Some Way From Take-Off

--- Colleen Turner <colleenturner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2004 23:35:50 -0800 (PST)
> From: Colleen Turner <colleenturner@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Subject: Highland Airport Deal Still Some Way From
> Take-Off 
> To: airport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> 
> Highland Airport Deal Still Some Way From Take-Off 
> The Herald, UK
>  
> January 12 2004 
>  
> NEGOTIATIONS still have some way to go before the
> privately-financed airport terminal at Inverness
> could
> be brought back into the public sector, the Scottish
> Executive stressed last night. Highlands and Islands
> Airports Ltd (HIAL) had been frustrated by the way
> the
> PFI deal with Noble & Company hampered efforts to
> increase traffic at Inverness more than five years
> after the £9.6m construction of the new terminal,
> car
> park and car-hire facilities.
> A year ago, a report by the Scottish Parliament's
> enterprise committee pointed out that the deal meant
> the operators had to pay the financiers for each
> passenger, making the deal "paradoxically hostile"
> to
> attempts to establish low-cost routes and increase
> numbers.
> Now the investment bankers are encouraging the
> executive to buy the facility and make it fully
> publicly-owned, like the other nine airports run by
> HIAL, with a selling price of £25 being mentioned.
> A spokesman for the executive said yesterday: "HIAL
> has evaluated a series of options to resolve the
> situation regarding costs associated with the PFI
> contract and has referred these to the Scottish
> Executive. 
> The spokesman indicated that the decision was not
> imminent, but the investment bankers point out that
> if
> passenger numbers increase, so will the price tag
> for
> a public purchase.
>  
> 
> 

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