Saturday 2 July 2011

The beginning of the end

Today was the final day that British International would grace the hangers of Plymouth Airport, given that its closure is now only months away. British International hold the contracts to maintain the Air Southwest fleet All the engineering facilities will now be based in Newquay, in one of the many Ex-RAF hangers that have been taken over for commercial use. The hanger, now just an empty shell, where once helicopters, planes, and a whole host of engineering equipment once laid. The hanger will soon be demolished to make way for the ongoing development of the land. 


Although the campaign to keep the airport open is still ongoing,  the loss of the all important infrastructure means a lot more work to turn back on if the site was to be saved. It certainly seems to show that other companies have little faith, left. It is a shame to see the passing of anything like this to do with our hobby, and although planes aren't my fortay, I shall certainly head up there to photograph the final departures from Plymouth airport. The decisions by Sutton Harbour do seem incredibly short sighted, with Plymouth ever expanding, and technological advances effectively shrinking the UK every day, meaning the far South West is more 'included' and within reachable distance, they still decide to close and develop the land. Or did we all see this coming from the start? 

4 comments:

Steve said...

BI is also soon closing Penzance heliport and moving to either Land's End or Newquay, neither of which are as accessible by public transport. The heliport has apparently been sold to Sainsbury's.

Laurence Mayhew said...

Yes spot on I forgot about that! Penzance is an extremely costly facility to keep open for the amount of traffic it receives, because all the 'elements' of a bigger airport still have to be maintained, whatever the size, for safety. The worry about Newquay I believe is that the fuel will be good amount more, than flying from Penzance, which could make it unviable.

Anonymous said...

How did you get into the hanger?

I've been spotting there four years and not allowed in?

Laurence Mayhew said...

Ah well my dad works at BI in that hanger, so he took the photos on the last day!