Cornwall Council’s Conservative Cabinet has thrown out a proposition to charge Newquay airport passengers an extra £10 fee, suggesting that if it was introduced it would lead to Ryanair immediately pulling flights from Cornwall and cause “major economic damage”.

The Cabinet met today (Wednesday, November 13) to agree the council’s draft budget for 2024/25 before the proposals go out to public consultation from November 15 to January 5.

The meeting heard that the council has been forced to make over £48m of savings in a bid to balance the books and that “unpalatable” decisions will have to be made when it comes to next year’s budget.

The newly formed budget development overview and scrutiny committee met on Halloween to consider the draft budget and savings proposals. One of its suggestions to Cabinet was that a fee of £10 per passenger, for all passengers aged 17 years or over departing Cornwall Airport Newquay be introduced from April 1, 2025, whether as a carbon reduction fee or whatever description was appropriate.

However, Cabinet members considered the recommendation and given the rise in Air Passenger Duty (APD) announced at the Chancellor’s Autumn Budget on October 30, did not feel introducing a levy would be supportive to the industry or aims of increasing passenger numbers.

Cllr Peter Perry, chair of the budget scrutiny committee, said of the £10 fee suggestion: “That was extortionate, agreed, but with almost 500,000 passengers a year using the airport possibly there’s an opportunity to raise a Net Zero levy on it.”

However, Cabinet member Cllr Louis Gardner was having none of that. The portfolio holder for the economy responded that the issue had been raised with airlines before. Ryanair, in particular, are “very clear – they will pull out and they have done before; they have proven it. If you lose Ryanair you will lose 50 per cent of all passengers immediately. You lose all your international winter flights immediately.

“You can only charge passenger duty on departing passengers, which are only 50 per cent of the 440,000 passengers who use the airport every year. If you were to lose Ryanair that would go down to less than 100,000 departing passengers a year.

"So it would cause major economic damage to the airport and major economic damage to wider Cornwall, and undoubtedly result in numerous job losses and further knock-on effects. The Cabinet weren’t willing to take that risk in order to generate some more revenue.”

An unpopular £5 airport development fee ran at the airport from 2006 until it was scrapped in 2016 following criticism from airlines and tourism bodies. Ryanair said the “significant fee” was a reason for pulling its flights from Newquay in 2011.

The airline agreed to return to the airport after Cornwall Council confirmed it would scrap the fee.

At today’s meeting the Cabinet recommended that when setting the 2025/26 budget there should be a 4.99 per cent maximum council tax increase (for the third year running) and the application of a 100 per cent council tax premium on second homes.

The net revenue budget for 2025/26 is £828.866m, which is an increase from 2024/25 of £58m.