Looking back at the previous 12 months as well as the year ahead.
I've kept it simple this year as our stats pages now only get updated once per year and I don't have the time to look back through each day page to pick out the best and most interesting visitors so with that in mind there are no stats / awards this year - apologies!
2014 Review
Although quiet in terms of movements, 2014 has been anything but bland! The airports 50th birthday was marked by a handful of events, most notably the successful ABAR visit, KLM DC-3 visit and the Canadian Lancaster open day - a top quality event unlikely to be topped for quite some time.
On the master plan front, a few minor bits and peices happened including the remodelling of the airside section of the terminal building with the landside area still on-going, though both sides look a million dollars and just goes to show how a minor difference makes such a major improvement. Hangars 4 and 5 were also demolished, with that area now looking much less of an eye sore.
In terms of companies, 2014 saw Skydive St. George move in, and they appear to be doing a roaring trade. Despite their DA42 being based for a while, NAL Asset Management moved in in a bigger way towards the end of the year and our understanding is they will be offering Commerical Pilots Licence and Multi-Engine training in association with Booker Aviation. There were also at least five non-aviation firms started-up / moved in during the year, though we won't list them here. Sycamore Aviation are now safe following the take-over by Glyn Wall Ltd and 2015 should hopefully be a much better year for them.
Despite being consistently down overall due to the discontinuation of charter flights; passenger numbers on both Eastern and KLM are stable if not both improved. Starting with Octobers figures, we've now 'bottomed out' and there should be only one way to go from here - up! Not sure if the VLM charters to Maastricht have been any benefit to us because if they're anything like the last batch to Hamburg with Eastern Airways then it's passengers that would otherwise have been on the Aberdeen flights.
Sadly, it's also been a record-breaking year for criticism towards the airport, I have no intention of dwelling too much on this subject other than to say we're bored of it and we're no longer going to lower ourselves to trying to fight it. It would not be so bad if it was based on fact or even logic. One thing we've learned is that Peel usually have good reason for doing what they do, and their side of the story often goes untold - the recent wind turbine controversy being a prime example. So until such a time that Peel give us reason to criticise, we are simply going to rise above it.
2015 Expectations
So what can we expect for 2015? From a spotting perspective it should be a slightly better year - now that Sycamore are back in business who knows what they might pull out of the hat, and with three GA operators moving in during the last twelve months, hopefully we can attract that number again if not more? Although a plan to improve GA at the airport hit a couple of minor snags, that should get resolved during 2015 and conseqently we may see the influx of new residents that began at the back end of 2014 continue on an even bigger scale - fingers crossed!
We should finally see some construction work take place as the master plan moves up a gear around Spring time, when work begins on the new road to the south side and the sale of land for housing provokes the construction of new hangars amongst other developments, although that might be more one for 2016.
2015 Targets
Just a bit of fun - some realistic goals to achieve taking into account the current economic climate and shocking state of the UK aviation industry:
> Housing application and subsequent land sale to be completed so that we can put it to bed, move on and focus on the rest of the master plan
> Master Plan-related construction work to begin, in addition to work on the new south side road
> Attract at least one new route
> Attract two or more new GA operators
> Grow the number of resident aircraft from 33 (not including 'south-side' residents) to between 35-38
> Improve public relations and communication (we've based this on overwhelming feedback from multiple different sources)
DTVMovements
The website is still going strong as ever!!
Highest month for visitors during 2014: September (43,595 unique
hits)
Average hits per day: 1,300
To Summarise
We don't want to sound overly-optimistic just in case but the signs are all there with lot's of little steps in the right direction. I think 2015 could definitely be an exciting and positive year for the airport, but perhaps a little bland for spotting, we may have to be patient a little bit longer but our day will come.
Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year from the DTV Movements Team!!