Councillors at Derry and Strabane District Council have heard that almost £6m is required to ensure City of Derry Airport can continue to operate beyond March 31, 2021.
Councillors gave their approval to request additional money from the government to secure the airport’s sustainability beyond March 31, 2021.
UK government funding subvention for the public service obligation (PSO) route from Derry to London “is currently provided at 100% until March 2021, but will reduce to 50% thereafter”.
Councillors were informed that the council “would not have the financial resources to bear this additional cost beyond that point and the full support of government or governments for the continued operation of the airport beyond March 2021 is required”.
Members of the committee agreed that council “underwrite an additional sum up to £750,000 to keep the City of Derry operational to March 2021 as an interim measure to allow the airport to operate whilst engagement continues with government”.
Scottish airline Loganair took over the London Stansted route in February, following the collapse of Flybmi, which had operated flights between the airports since 2017.
The route now operates from City of Derry airport to Southend.
The public service obligation air route, the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, has been in place since 2017.
