Peel ready for smoother flight

Peel Holdings (Airports), which also owns Liverpool and Durham

airports, saw turnover fall from 52.4m to 47.3m last year, while group operating loss sunk from 4.5m to 7.2m.

A Peel Airports spokeswoman said: "Although the difficult economic climate last year impacted on all airports across the UK, much of the increased loss was associated with a reorganisation within the business.

"Having delivered this, the group is well positioned to realise its future potential as the business comes out of the recession.

"In recent months new business announcements have been made across the group and Liverpool John Lennon Airport has already seen passenger growth in the past two consecutive months, which is expected to be repeated across the group in the year ahead."

In its report for the year ending March 2009, the group said passenger traffic at Robin Hood airport fell by 14 per cent to 945,800.

It blamed this on TUI's merger with First Choice, which resulted in reduced capacity.

The group said Wizz Air and Flybe operated successfully from the airport during the year.

Britain's biggest airline, easyJet, announced in December that it would start flights from Robin Hood airport in the spring.