Cllr Tim Dwelly warns Cornwall Airport Newquay jobs may change

Updated on 19 July 2026 with a response from Councillor Tim Dwelly.

Cornwall Airport Newquay is facing a £1.4 million shortfall, and the councillor now responsible for it has told a council committee that the number of jobs at the site, or the hours worked there, could change. The warning has been seized on by Linda Taylor, former Leader of Cornwall Council, who says the current administration has abandoned the principles it held in opposition.

A £1.4 million gap after Eastern Airways collapse

Cllr Tim Dwelly set out the position at a council scrutiny committee on 16 June 2026, after the collapse of Eastern Airways left the airport with the shortfall. He told the committee: “I’m not going to beat about the bush here, we are going to have to expect a very major change in how the airport is run, and that might mean the number of jobs there or the hours may have to change.”

The council has not yet set out which roles or which hours would be affected, or over what timescale.

Tim Dwelly’s earlier position on the airport

Tim Dwelly has spoken about the airport before. In 2022 and 2023 he was a vocal critic of the then Conservative administration’s private discussions about a possible sale of the airport, arguing that an asset of that importance should be examined in public rather than behind closed doors. When the proposed sale was dropped, he described the airport as vital to the county.

He said at the time: “Our airport is vital for keeping Cornwall connected, supporting tourism and creating jobs. These assets belong to the people of Cornwall, and we have a duty to protect them.”

Former council leader responds

Linda Taylor, former Leader of Cornwall Council, said the June comments showed a gap between what the administration promised and what it is now delivering.

“This exposes the current administration for exactly what it is,” she said. “They postured about principle when it suited them in opposition, and now that they actually have to run the county, the truth is out: they never had a plan, only slogans. When we took our decisions on the airport, we did so out of genuine conviction; Dwelly has made his out of political convenience, and it’s Cornwall’s workers and taxpayers who will pay for his failure.”

Here’s the update. The cleanest way to do it is to replace the current final paragraph, the one starting “Tim Dwelly has not responded publicly…”, since that line is now out of date. Dwelly’s response slots straight in where it was.

Tim Dwelly responds

In response, Councillor Tim Dwelly, Cornwall Council’s cabinet member for economy, regeneration and investment, said:

“This is a typically strange diatribe from Linda Taylor, who should be enjoying peaceful retirement after the collapse of her Cornwall Conservatives. I haven’t changed my stance. The last council which Taylor ran refused to look into how the airport itself was run. Instead they focused on a doomed-to-fail handover of the airport and all its land to an American multi millionaire’s personal private equity company. We are putting right what they failed to do all those years: bringing in businesses, renewables, drone operators and more to locate on the airport estate – and looking much harder at how the airport itself is run inside the fence. Clearing up the mess we inherited will take time but we are determined to do it.”

The scale of any changes at Cornwall Airport Newquay remains to be confirmed.