Airport defends flight tax
16.06.11
Blackpool Airport lost a legal battle with airline Jet2 over its operating hours yesterday. The airline and airport have been in dispute since the airport refused to allow two of Jet2's late night flights to land last October. The planes were forced to divert to Manchester, with passengers transferred by bus back to Blackpool.
The airport, which said it did not want to provide ground staff and emergency services after 21:00 because it needed to cut costs, and threatened to prevent the airline from taking off or landing outside of the airport’s published opening hours of 07:00 to 21:00. Jet2 said the refusal was a breach of contract and took the airport to court.
The ‘sudden and unilateral decision to refuse to honour Jet2's flights’ was called ‘a serious breach of contract’ by his honour Judge Mackie QC yesterday. He upheld the contract between the two parties, which allowed later landing times than 21:00. He said: ‘It cannot be intended that [Blackpool Airport] should be able to pick and choose what to do in light of what suits it financially.’
Jet2 chief executive Philip Meeson said: ‘This is a victory for our customers. Jet2 is [at Blackpool Airport] to stay. We look forward to a future serving our customers from Blackpool Airport; providing flights to a fantastic range of sun and city destinations at convenient flight times and all at friendly low fares.’
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