Little known Cambridge airport is set to grow and intends to wrestle trade away from more familiar regional airports and provide a speedy connection to long haul flights operating from so called ‘hub’ airports across the Channel.

From this summer it hopes to attract 50 and 60 seater aircraft to fly business passengers out to Amsterdam and Paris. Once there they can transfer onto larger planes serving multiple destinations around the world.

Cambridge would therefore act as a ‘spoke’ to these hub airports and allow air passengers from the local area to avoid having to use Heathrow, Gatwick or Stansted.

But the airport is not against expansion of Heathrow and has no ambition to welcome large charter flights used by  holidaymakers. “Government should build a third runway at Heathrow and allow for mixed mode operation there,” said Terry Holloway of airport owner Marshall of Cambridge. “The present policy of not doing anything about Heathrow and not making a decision about another possible airport is certainly of benefit to small airfields like ours as we will attract traffic. But London needs one hub.”

Next year Cambridge is hoping to start work on resurfacing and strengthening its 2km long runway, improving taxiways and creating wider aprons for aircraft. The improvement is thought to be worth around £25M and follows the upgrading of a passenger terminal.

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