Blackpool Council has purchased Blackpool Airport site in a £4.25m deal.

The council had sold the site back in 2004 for £13m, but has today confirmed it has taken 100% ownership of the site in a deal with Balfour Beatty.

Leader of the council said the deal represents a ‘positive new dawn’ for the site and was confident the money for the purchase would be repaid.

Cllr Simon Blackburn said: ‘Blackpool Airport is such a key part of having a strong local economy and it is absolutely vital that we safeguard its future and ensure that it can continue to be used as an aviation and employment hub for the Fylde coast for the long term.

‘We do not envisage the return of large scale passenger planes to the airport. The purpose of this acquisition is to safeguard the helicopter and other commercial airside activities that take place, build upon them and deliver our overall objective of creating up to 5,000 jobs on the Enterprise Zone site.’