Irish developer Howard Holdings has put Coventry Airport in the British midlands up for sale, just three years after it acquired it for €15m.

Howard has placed the airport on the market for an undisclosed sum having invested £6m (€6.7m) on infrastructural improvements since purchasing it from the TUI Group in 2006. The airport had been serving about 700,000 passengers a year.

Howard bought the airport with Convergence-AFCO Holdings but later took sole ownership of it. When it bought the airport, passenger flights were operated by Thomsonfly and Wizz Air and plans were in place to build a new terminal building which would facilitate an estimated two million passengers annually.

However, the expansion plans were scuppered when it was blocked by the High Court in London and subsequently both Thomsonfly and Wizz Air ceased all commercial flights from the airport.

The airport is being marketed as a functioning airport though it currently operates on a freight-only basis. Airport director Brian Cox said that the company is currently concentrating on developing the airport as a 'Midland Hub' for cargo, executive jets and ad hoc charter operations. Recent investments included the building of a fixed-based operation which offers aircraft fuel, oil and parking.

The airport's potential to break into the low-cost carrier market is limited due to its proximity to Birmingham Airport. It is understood that Ryanair briefly flew into Coventry in the early '90s but the company says that it is not interested in buying the airport. Ryanair spokesman Stephen McNamara said the company is too busy "filling airports to buy airports".