§ Vice-Admiral Hughes Hallettasked the Minister of Transport and Civil Aviation what progress he is making with the closure of Croydon Airport to charter and other flyers who have continued to use it since December last; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. WatkinsonAs a result of the arrangements which the Secretary of State for Air and I made to accommodate the Croydon flying clubs at Biggin Hill at the beginning of February, aircraft movements at Croydon have now been 19W reduced to under a quarter of what they were a year ago.
I have now decided that Croydon Airport will be closed for general flying as from 1st May. I am, however, prepared as an exception and for a short period after that to give special permission to commercial firms with established bases there to continue scheduled and charter operations, and operations in aircraft owned or constructed by them or maintained under existing contract by them for purposes directly connected with the maintenance, repair, test or delivery of such aircraft. These exceptional concessions will be granted only to firms that can satisfy me that they are doing all they can to find alternative accommodation and that they need extra time after 30th April for the purpose of transferring their flying operations elsewhere.
The effect of my decisions will be that flying at Croydon this summer will be a very small fraction of the amount of flying a year ago. There will be no flying at night save in emergency and in any event operations will cease altogether not later than 30th September, when the Ministry's facilities and services on the aerodrome will be withdrawn.