Anger sparked over return of flights to Coventry Airport

Sir Peter spoke out after Kenilworth and Southam MP Jeremy Wright appeared to oppose passenger flights at the Baginton airfield while speaking at Coventry and Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership’s conference.

The partnership’s bid to make the Coventry Gateway project one of the Government’s new Enterprise Zones failed in August.

But there are plans to make the project, which could create up to 14,000 jobs on land around Coventry Airport, one of the Department for Communities and Local Government’s ‘frontrunner’ scheme.

Speaking in a panel of MPs, Mr Wright said he supported Enterprise Zones and that a future bid might be accepted - but that he had reservations about linking the project with restarting passenger flights.

Mr Wright, a Tory whip, said: “I’m not sure it’s necessary to make an indelible connection between reopening the airport to full service and creating jobs on the site.”

The airport’s owner Sir Peter Rigby responded immediately from the floor of the conference, which was attended by hundreds of businesspeople as well as representatives from councils, colleges and universities.

He said: “It’s a private initiative to create the Coventry and Warwick development, particularly which has come out of the airport and they are intrinsically linked.

“If you knew the difficulty of bringing the airport - which is a regional asset - back to life, it isn’t a question as simple as full passenger services.”

Sir Peter said passenger flights had been popular but accepted they had been introduced in a way that upset local people.

He added: “They are intrinsically linked and as a businessman I want to develop both those things. It isn’t just a question of developing business outside the airport, it is both.”