'No plans for air passengers'

Airport bosses near Bridgnorth today claimed that they have no intention of offering passenger flights from the site as they discussed their future plans for Wolverhampton Airport.

The announcement comes after campaigners said they feared expansion plans for the Bobbington site were back on the table following the latest Regional Spatial Strategy.

Planning guidelines in the strategy discuss merging the airport's redevelopment with proposals at Coventry, a far larger passenger airport that flies one million people to foreign destinations every year. It also mentions the airport supporting Birmingham Airport.

Members of the Wolverhampton Airport Action Group, WAAG, fear that "lumping" the two together in planning policy could mean bosses might plump for a big future expansion.

But Billy Quinn, of MAR Properties and commercial manager of the airport, said: "The RSS says we would be supporting Birmingham Airport but we have no intention of having passenger flights from Wolverhampton Airport."

He added: "We shall be issuing a statement in the next four to six weeks on our plans for the future of the airport."

Roger Williams, of WAAG, said: "We are continuing to lobby against the Regional Spatial Strategy to reflect what we would like it to say.

"We want the airport to continue its current service. And we think what the RSS says is completely unacceptable. We would like it to remain as a successful business aviation airport. We will know more what is going on at the end of the consultation period."