14 of 18 municipalities in Østfold have granted an application for a project to gain funding to reopen Moss Airport Rygge.
Rygge Airport AS (RA) is working to reopen Moss Airport Rygge to civilian traffic after the operation was discontinued on November the 1st last year.
In order to finance the necessary research, and do deals to get the airport operational again, the fundraisers must gain share capital of 7.5 million.
After a board meeting on Wednesday, RA announced today that the capital increase so far has been 2.49 million.
The company believes the financial support shows a strong regional desire and need to reopen the airport in April 2018.
The airport was first opened in autumn 2007, but shut down on November the 1st last year after Ryanair stopped using the airport as their base, according to Ryanair, as a result of air passenger tax.
The plan for RA was to collect 7.5 million so quickly that a reopening could happen on the 1st of April this year, but in December, it became clear that the funding targets hadn’t been reached, and the project was deferred for one year.
In February, they had to postpone the deadline to collect funding to the 17th of March, and they haven’t yet reached the goal.
In the statement on Wednesday, it was announced that Østfold municipalities have contributed to the RA approaching its goal of one million kroner from the municipal sector.
Also, municipalities in Follo in Akershus have expressed an interest. Over 800 people have supported the project with a total of 165,000, in addition to contributions from various different companies.
A possible reopening is highly debated within several of the municipalities in the region, and among the parties themselves.
The project period is from February/March to September/October 2017, and the funds collected should include covering the salaries of the chairman, directors and project staff, use of consultants and the purchase of external services, marketing, sales and various administrative expenses.
Source: NTB scanpix / Norway Today
