Airport Twente at Risk

Airport Twente at Risk

Last week it became clear that the financial crisis has hit the plans for Enschede Airport Twente very hard. There is less interest in building houses on the grounds of the former Airport Base and the plans for all kinds of other activities are very unstable.
Nightmare
The actions groups are awake again after a period of hybernation due to the secrecy of the process of attracting investors for the airport.. Not because that’s not a secret anymore but because the results of the second opinion by AT Osborne are alarming. There is a loss of millions already and that’s not the end of it. The plans for the airport itself haven’t even been researched again yet but a major setback is expected there too, since these plans depend on the success of all the other activities that were planned, which now seem to have been partly evaporated. And what about flying? Will people fly less due to all the uncertainty on the financial markets and rather hold on to their savings? And will investors spend their money now or will they wait?
To kill a dream
Yet the majority of the town council of Enschede is still convinced that their dream will come true and is prepared to take the first losses. The opposition (GroenLinks, SP and D66) tried to explain that the scales are sliding already and that the airport plans must be stopped right now. But without success. Representatives of the actions groups that spoke in the city hall in Enschede and earlier that day in the Provinciehuis in Zwolle also spoke to a wall of incompetence and pigheadedness.