Loss-making Isle of Man Airport continues to operate over-budget.

Ronaldsway’s budget for 2024-25 was £7.2m but as things stand the facility is expected to cost £8.8m to run this financial year, according to figures in the latest Department of Infrastructure plan.

The department plan for 2024-25 - which this month’s Tynwald sitting will be asked to receive - shows that forecast income is £4,613,000 but expenditure is £13,472,000 producing a net revenue deficit of £8,859,000 by year end, which is around £1.65m over the initial budget.

In 2023-24, the airport’s budget was £7.67m but the actual cost was £9.18m and in 2022-23, its budget was £2.3m but the actual cost was £7.1m, an overspend of £1.51m and £4.8m respectively, the DoI confirmed.

A spokesperson said the £8.8m figure for 2024-25 includes provisions for increased employee, security and general costs offset against forecast additional revenue.

He said: ‘The airport’s allocation forms part of the overall departmental budget, with funds monitored and managed throughout the year across all divisions to reach the final figure at year end.’

He said that subsidies paid to airlines for maintaining key strategic routes are paid from internal funds, not the revenue budget.

Just under 650,000 passengers used the airport last year, well up on the 562,490 the previous year but still well short of the 865,617 that passed through Ronaldsway in 2019, the last full year before Covid struck.

In 2019 a report by consultants York Aviation highlighted a lack of transparency of financial information relating to the airport – making it difficult to establish the true trading position.

They estimated the trading deficit at that point as being about £3.7m which they said was slightly worse than most comparative airports.

York Aviation recommended that Ronaldsway should be operated by a state-owned arm’s-length company, a move it claimed would save £970,000 a year.

An airport shadow board has been set up and a project that is considering the future function and form of Ronaldsway is ongoing.

The latest department plan says passenger numbers are forecast to grow this year and beyond as new routes and capacity are added.

But it also acknowledges some regular routes have been lost - Bristol and Belfast.

And it refers to the ongoing issues with staff shortages in air traffic control which continue to cause disruption.

The airport took the unprecedented step of closing the runway five times a day back in June last year to enable air traffic controllers to have their fatigue breaks.

Runway closures were subsequently reduced to two in the morning but these are not now expected to be lifted altogether until next year. Airport bosses insist only a fraction of flight delays can be blamed on Ronaldsway’s ATC issues.