Birmingham Airport’s £260m expansion plan could be delayed or halted by European Union plans to abolish duty-free sales in two years.
The company has awarded a contract worth £15.9m for the first phase of its expansion to John Laing. But it said the loss of duty-free income could jeopardise its plans to double in size by 2005.
European Union finance ministers originally agreed to scrap Europe’s £4bn-a-year duty-free industry in 1991 as part of the creation of a single market. The final decision on whether to abolish duty-free is expected early next year.
- Financial Times 11/09/97 page 8
