Sir – It is with some frustration that we feel compelled to respond to Doctor Edwards’s letter (September 23) with respect to the new hangar at Oxford Airport.
After two years of recession there is no mention of the economic benefits that come with facilitating business growth at what is essentially an aerospace business park. Amongst 20-plus companies employing several hundred employees today, the need for extra space to grow is ever present. Companies like Eurocopter recently needed more space, in part to fulfil their role in supporting RAF Pumas.
Long-established AirMed have required more space as the UK’s most prominent medevac and repatriation operator, indeed the only one in Britain with dedicated fast jet capability.
Another operator based at Oxford, Hangar 8 Ltd, has evolved with a handful of employees eight years ago to well over 100 today. These are high-skill and knowledge-based jobs.
Aircraft need hangars for support and despite the growth on the ground, the airport is statistically the quietest it has ever been with over a 70 per cent drop in flying activity over ten years — unprecedented amongst our peers.
The location of these hangars is dictated by operational viability, whilst the location is surrounded by development on three sides. There is nowhere else in Oxfordshire they can go.
We have to evolve with the times and we would have hoped the facilitation of that growth might be hailed as beneficial for the regional economy.
With potential threats to the military sector with the forthcoming Strategic Defence Review, anything the civil sector can do to create further high-skilled employment is surely to be welcomed.
The airport will continue to evolve as a hub of aviation expertise with world-leading companies like Oxford Aviation Academy and Eurocopter.
If we don’t provide the tools for this growth, they could simply move away from Oxfordshire, or worse still, move overseas.
One might also give consideration to the considerable sum in business rates paid by the airport and its tenants to the local authority, a figure that has risen exponentially in recent years.
James Dillon-Godfray, Business development director, Oxford Aviation Services Limited
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