SOUTHAMPTON Airport is likely to lose around £4.5million this year as it prepares to build the runway extension that will make it viable, a meeting will hear.

The airport’s operations director has said it needs around 1.2m passengers a year to break even – and that the extension will make those numbers possible.

The Southampton Airport consultative committee of Eastleigh Borough Council – which brings together councillors, residents’ representatives, businesses and the airport – is set to meet online on Friday, October 7.

READ MORE: 'Huge opportunity' as Southampton Airport eyes three million passengers and 2,000 staff

Minutes of the previous meeting in June show that it was told by airport director Steve Szalay that the airport was expecting to lose £4.7m this year.

Mr Szalay told the Daily Echo the expectation was “probably a £4.5m loss now”. He said the airport had been frank about its losses during the consultation over the runway extension.

“Without the extension, there’s no nice way of putting it. We were screwed,” he said.

“That was tried and tested in court at the judicial review.”

As previously reported, the airport believes it can grow to three million passengers a year and 2,000 staff after the 164metre (538ft) runway extension is built next year.

It saw two million passengers in 2019 but that figure dropped to around 200,000 last year in the wake of the Covid crisis and the collapse of budget airline Flybe in 2020 .

Mr Szalay said it would be impossible to reach 2019 passenger numbers again without the runway extension, which will allow airlines to fly bigger planes.

“Once Flybe fell, there was no other airline with a big enough fleet that can operate off our runway,” he said.

“There are not enough airlines with small enough aircraft."

He pointed out that Doncaster had already seen its airport close after it failed to secure enough airlines.

"No airport has a right to exist if it can't make money," he said.

“The key thing is about moving forward, not looking back. Once we’ve got the runway extension, then we can be open to a whole host of airlines who, for example, operate with Airbus A320s and then we’re viable again. We can connect to anywhere in Europe," he added.

READ MORE: Controversial plans to extend runway WILL go ahead after failed appeal

The final legal challenge to the airport’s runway extension was defeated at the Court of Appeal earlier this year.

Mr Szalay has said that once the extension is built, more attention will be given to the Navigator Quarter – land to the east and north of the airport where businesses will benefit from low taxes as part of the Solent Freeport project.

“I would like it to be green technology. As we’re the home of the Spitfire, we could say we’re the home of electronic aircraft,” he said previously.

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