Swansea Council will re-consider its position on the operating of Swansea Airport, it has indicated. The legal review was revealed in answers to questions from councillors. The situation will be discussed at a council meeting tomorrow. It comes after the UK's aviation regulator has suspended Swansea Airport's licence once again. Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) inspectors visited the airport last week and suspended its refuelling licence before calling a provisional halt on the operating licence.
Swansea Council agendas state that councillors James McGettrick, Jeff Jones, Lynda James, Michael Locke and Cheryl Philpott will ask the authority in councillors questions on Thursday, March 30: "The council decided to award a new lease to the current leaseholder, Swansea Airport Ltd (SAL) on January 19. Last week the CAA suspended the airport licence for several safety related issues, including systemic failure of airport safety systems. Most of these failures have been the cause that the airport licence has been suspended for periods over the past 15 years. This is a case of 'repeat offending'. Since SAL have been unable to meet the prime lease requirement of maintaining the airport licence in the past, how do the council propose to secure compliance with the new lease?"
The authority will answer: "Given recent events, the council are now reviewing its legal position and officers will be updating cabinet in April. Nevertheless, the recent CAA situation will require the Council to review its legal position further before it can confirm the next course of action."
