Time now for all us Wiggins watchers to move with the times and start using Planestation, the new company identity. The name Wiggins Group plc has now disappeared from the database at Companies House and Planestation is now listed on the LSE website.

So fellow travellers, forget Wiggins, the name of the game is now PLANESTATION. Lets hope it goes like an express train.

Just a bit of turbulence... nothing to worry about. Although PTG did get a small positive mention in Shares Mag this morning.. probably put the mockers on it !

Just a small snippet from a Government White Paper and quoted on the BBCi website. From a government forecast:

Numbers passing through UK airports
2004 - 200 million
2020 - 400 million
2030 - 500 million

Surely the regional airports must play a major role in those figures.

Socs,
Thanks for the figures.Regional airports will probably collect a large % of these passengers as the major airports are even now near to saturation point at peak times. With many of the minor players having much more room to expand on the ground prospects should be good for them. What we need now is our thoughts to be accepted and reflected in the share price of PTG...Selfish sod aren't I !!! :-))
Not too good a day today, consolidation perhaps?
opto

Just landed to pick up passengers, now with a bit of luck should be climbing up up and away......

G12

Revival could be underway.......when this baby moves, boy does she move fast....

FROM UK ANALYST:

Buy Planestation at 6.7p

argues Rob Cullum, editor of TrendWatch

Planestation Group is a company many of you will know better as Wiggins Group. Over recent years, it has had a disastrous track record. But there have been big developments and changes recently that could result in a sharp recovery. Indeed, the shares are already starting to reflect this increased optimism with a chart breakout.

Apart from several residential developments in the UK, Planestation has assembled a network of regional airports on which it and its partners pledged to spend 198 million pounds over 10 years. The airports in its portfolio are in the US (Smyrna, near Nashville), Denmark (Odense, home town of Hans Christian Andersen), Lahr (in the Black Forest close to Strasbourg), Ajman (an emirate between Dubai and Sharjah) and the Czech Republic (Pilsen). The jewel in the crown (hopefully) is Manston, the 700-acre ex-RAF base in Kent, where Barnes Wallace's bouncing bombs, used to attack dams in the Ruhr in 1943, were perfected. The development includes Kent International Airport, currently operational almost exclusively for freight, plus an adjacent 1,100 acre business park.

The problem for Wiggins (as it then was) is that it took on big debts to build its network of airports, using expensive mezzanine finance, but was badly hit by the airline industry slump after 9/11. The UK government also turned down its proposed new racetrack at Fairlop Waters in Essex. In December, it had to raise a massive 46 million pounds in a share and bond issue to save itself from going bankrupt. It will also sell off some of its developments.

Actually, its problems date back to way before 9/11. In early 2001, it was forced by the Financial Reporting Review Panel to restate its previous six years' results. As a consequence it made a loss in each of those six years instead of the profit that it had previously reported.

Clearly the old management didn't do a very good job. The axe was duly wielded and a new chief executive was parachuted down in March. This was corporate recovery specialist Martin May. The straight-talking May is well known in the City for his superb track record in turning around ailing companies. There are still a lot of disgruntled shareholders out there who oppose the change because they fear that he intends to break Planestation up. But he has spiked their guns by stating categorically that he will not do that. Rather, he wants to raise money by selling non-core assets and a stake in Manston so that the airport network can be further developed.

Last month, Planestation put 2 million pounds into buying a 30% stake in the Irish no-frills airline EUjet, run by former Ryanair chief executive P J McGoldrick. EUjet will run the first scheduled flights out of Kent International starting on 1st September. The airline says it expects to fly 300,000 passengers out of Manston in the first year, rising to 2 million by the end of year three. Planestation says its investment in EUjet will be earnings-enhancing from the outset - though that obviously depends on EUjet being a survivor of the bloodbath of low-cost airlines predicted by Ryanair.

It's tempting to write off Planestation as another basket case. That would be to fly in the face of logic. Do you think that the institutions would invest in a basket case? Nor do we. It was the institutions that forked out most of the 46 million pounds in May; and they injected a further 5.6 million pounds net a couple of weeks ago to help the company develop facilities at Manston ahead of the start of EUjet's operations.

Looking some years ahead, the development potential for Manston is enormous, given the shortage of airport capacity in London and the southeast. Manston isn't yet blessed with half-decent road and rail links. But every airport development has to start somewhere.

This share is more speculative and higher risk than most, so it won't be for everyone. Probably the biggest risk is that EUjet won't survive. If the worst comes to the worst, it wouldn't be a terminal blow (pardon the pun). Other airlines are believed to be following along behind. But it would certainly knock Planestation's credibility yet again. Nevertheless, given the transformed balance sheet, the institutional involvement and the highly regarded new chief, we feel that's a risk worth taking. Buy.

from a poster on 3i:

BY WAYNE T. PRICE
FLORIDA TODAY

Top executives from PlaneStation Group plc, the British company seeking to establish flights from England and Germany to Melbourne International Airport, said Thursday they are committed to trans-Atlantic flights, hopefully by October.

But PlaneStation brass would not, or could not, promise absolutely those flights would indeed occur.

And Melbourne International Airport officials restated they won't go ahead with facilities improvements until that promise is made.

PlaneStation Chief Executive Martin May and Senior Vice President Tony Freudmann were in Melbourne on Thursday to discuss the company's future plans with the Melbourne airport. They brought with them a delegation of about 20 British and German travel and tour operators, hoping to gauge the local interest in trans-Atlantic flights.

The group toured the Melbourne airport Thursday and plans to meet today and Saturday with Central Florida travel and tourism representatives. Also, the public is invited to a Saturday tourism seminar to discuss European travel and tour opportunities from Melbourne.

All this is part of the Melbourne air facility's efforts to set up overseas flights and gain a foothold in airports in Europe. Part of the deal with PlaneStation requires Melbourne airport officials to spend hundreds of thousands of taxpayers' dollars to upgrade the local facilities. Some people criticized those plans, questioning whether the deal with PlaneStation will indeed take off, and, if so, how much it will cost taxpayers and how long that relationship might last.

The modifications planned to accommodate international flights include converting an airport hangar, now used by Florida Tech, into a 14,000-square-foot welcoming center for international travelers. It's estimated to cost about $700,000.

Also included is expansion in the main concourse for an international terminal, which would include a duty-free operation, a project estimated at $2.5 million.

Much of the cost would be federally funded. But critics said those funds might be better spent on other projects.

May, at an afternoon news conference at the airport, said he was "reasonably confident" that PlaneStation, formerly called the Wiggins Group, can iron out the final details with Melbourne airport officials. If an agreement is made soon, he said, flights -- on Boeing 767s -- could be operating from Melbourne and PlaneStation's airports in England and Germany in October.

Freudmann conceded Wiggins has never had a successful U.S.-based partnership similar to what it is trying to establish with Melbourne. The closest it came was a near-agreement with the Smyrna Airport in Tennessee.

That fell through because a "vocal opposition" against lengthening the runway needed to accommodate Wiggins' aircraft, Freudmann said.

May said he doesn't see that kind of opposition in Melbourne.

"This community is behind this proposition," said May, admitting that belief mostly is based on discussions with Melbourne airport officials.

May and others hope to get a better idea of the local support at a two-day seminar today and Saturday at the Cocoa Beach Holiday Inn. European travel and tour operators will meet their Central Florida counterparts to see how much interest there is for trans-Atlantic flights from the Melbourne airport.

The public is invited to attend the seminar from 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday to meet with the European delegation about travel opportunities in Germany and England.

Melbourne International Marketing Director Larry Wuensch said achieving public interest is as important as securing planes and airports for these types of arrangements to work.

"Once the travel agents and tour operators feel that there are sufficient numbers of people ready to buy the product," Wuensch said, "then they'll make the final commitment, and the plane will start running. It takes a lot of work to get to that point."

Contact Price at 242-3658 or wprice@flatoday.net

THIS IS GREAT NEWS AS I LIVE NEAR MANSTON WE HAVE HEARD AND SEEN SO MUCH GOING ON WITH REGARDS TO JOBS ETC

Same here llewllyn.

G12 fingers xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Car park planning

http://www.yourcounty.co.uk/news/archive/180604n1.html

Got to say it's all been very quiet here-not a depression setting in I hope!
Anyone got any clues as to the share tumble?

jparis
Could be down to the very large % short term gains that are in the stock. I am one of the guilty ones, took a 53% gain in 5 weeks. Now looking for a further drop to re-enter (selfish) If I do not get a lower price I will buy in when a little more is known about the future of PTG and the price starts to climb on well founded prospects.
Good luck
opto

Bound to be some profit taking around. Should expect results first week in July (7th/8th I believe according to Edmund Jackson). Hopefully will get more details on the LFG deal and clarification of current strategy.

opto
Can't blame you for taking profit when you can-wish I could do the same! you just never know what's around the corner with this company. As for results due in july, mmm....we'll see!

Looking at the chart, I feel we are in for a drop to 6p,this will no doubt happen as the m/m's prob. have bigger buys linning up for the future, personally think there's no stopping the progress now,only the time lost developing Manston, to its full potential...IMHO

Holding onto mine for now, although should take a chance,sell and come in lower, but who knows what that turning point is at.? could get left out in the cold, we can always average down again I suppose, not quite at break-even yet.

With thanks to Serko on another board,
New charter flights have been announced from Parchim airport (Baltic)
see:
http://www.flughafen-parchim.de/
Good Luck
Eddie

Thanks Eddie

REVISED PLANS SUBMITTED FOR STATE-OF-THE-ART LONDON CITY RACECOURSE SCHEME

PlaneStation Group has submitted a new planning application to the London
Borough of Redbridge for its Foster & Partners designed London City Racecourse
development at Fairlop Waters, Barkingside. The proposals envisage a
state-of-the-art scheme featuring amenities which will benefit the whole
community.

The latest plans address all of the issues which resulted in the previous scheme
being declined by the Secretary of State, in particular concerns over the scale
of the grandstand and ancillary buildings, while still providing a flagship
international standard, all-weather horse racing circuit.

The new grandstand design is substantially reduced in scale, with a capacity of
8,500 compared with 20,000 previously, and will also accommodate a children's
playcentre and restaurant, both of which will be run independently of the
racecourse. Two additional buildings included in the original plans have been
removed altogether.

Other elements of the proposed scheme include a habitat management plan, the
enhancement and future management of the country park including improved public
access which will ensure its lasting benefit for the local community. The scheme
will incorporate sustainable ecological engineering to save energy and conserve
water.

Nigel Miles, head of group property at PlaneStation, says: 'We have gone back to
the drawing board to provide a comprehensively improved scheme which will bring
new investment and first class facilities to the local community, in addition to
providing a flagship racecourse for the British racing industry'.
'We have taken a holistic approach to sustainable design, providing a scheme
which is both visually stunning and sympathetic to its local surroundings and we
are confident this will be recognised favourably by the local authority'

The original proposal to redevelop the 345 acre (125 ha) former landfill site as
a racecourse was declined following a public inquiry by the Secretary of State
in July 2002. Although it was accepted that Fairlop Waters is a suitable
location for a racecourse, the core reason for the refusal was the scale of the
grandstand and the impact it would have on the Green Belt.

ATIS REAL Weatheralls is PlaneStation's planning consultant.

Further Enquiries:

Isabel Crossley St Brides Media Tel: 020 7242 4477

Nigel Miles PlaneStation Group plc Tel: 020 7495 8686
(Head of Property)


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange

96% sells so far today but no movement, interesting!

MMs seem to be soaking up a lot of shares - a buyer in the background ?