NEWQUAY airport will re-open tomorrow after an embarrassing three-week closure.

Cornwall County Council has now succeeded in obtaining the necessary licence from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to operate the airport after it was transferred from the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

The news has been greeted universally by councillors, business and tourism leaders, but some have warned of the dangerous knock that confidence in the airport has taken.

The people in charge of the airport breathed a sigh of relief last night as the CAA granted the licence which was previously refused due to problems with the control tower and landscaping around the runway. The airport was transferred from the MoD on December 1, but the lack of a licence forced thousands of passengers on to buses for journeys to other airports in the region.

Andrew Mitchell (Lib Dem), Cornwall County Council's executive member for the economy, has faced calls for his resignation over the airport debacle. Last night he said: "We are obviously delighted that we have achieved certification and designation from the CAA and are now able to reopen the aerodrome to commercial flights. Cornwall now has an airport to be proud of.

"I would like to thank all our passengers for their patience and support during our temporary closure. I appreciate being transferred by road to alternative airports will have inconvenienced them and I am very grateful for their tolerance."

Coun Mitchell said there were exciting plans for the development of the airport which he hoped will benefit the whole county.

Colin Jarvis, deputy director of planning, transportation and estates described the airport takeover as "an enormously complex project".

"Firstly because the aerodrome was treated as a greenfield site by the CAA, which has meant we have had to build an entirely new aerodrome," he said. "Secondly the project has been carried out on a live airfield, where we continued to maintain daily civilian flights, rather than a complete closure for a period of months, while construction was carried out.

"We faced extensive challenges in delivering the overall project and I am proud of what we have achieved."

Tim Jones, chairman of Devon and Cornwall Business Council, told the WMN this week that businesses could lose £6 million from the closure. But last night he said everyone had to move on from any problems and make the most of a multi-million-pound asset.

He said: "There's been a lot of frustration and anger because of the uncertainty and delay and the best way to deal with that is to trade out of the predicament. This is fantastic news and the best Christmas present we could have hoped for. Let's now put all the anxiety behind us."

Independent county councillor Mark Kaczmarek has been critical of the way the handover was handled. He said: "What has happened is unforgivable and is going to be very costly. Hopefully a lot of lessons have been learnt but it's been at the taxpayer's expense."