City of Derry Airport '˜a colossal waste of money and a failure'

David Harding, of Causeway Coast and Glens Council, said taxpayers and ratepayers had spent over £30m building and supporting the airport over the past three decades, but claimed it was time for the local authority to “face the reality that the airport is a failure”.

He added: “Figures recently published by the CAA show that passenger numbers have slumped by 100,000 in the past year – that means the airport has lost over a third of its business in the past year alone.”

Mr Harding claimed there are only two significant airports on the island of Ireland – Dublin and Belfast.

“Healthy competition between these two airports is a good thing but trying to sustain other airports is simply an unwise use of money,” he said.