SPECULATION is mounting that Bournemouth Airport is on the verge of being sold after the owner of several other regional airports was seen visiting the site.

Sir Peter Rigby, chairman of the company which owns airports including Blackpool, Coventry and Exeter, was spotted by several people after flying into Bournemouth by helicopter.

He is understood to have made more than one visit in recent weeks. Rumours have been circulating around the site that a sale of the airport has already been agreed, either to his company or another buyer.

A spokesman for Manchester Airports Group (MAG), which owns the airport, said: “We do not comment on rumour and speculation.”

However, several sources spotted Sir Peter – one of Britain’s richest men – being given a site tour.

One said Sir Peter arrived with several other people to take part in a meeting at the site.

The source said: “While the meeting took place, the helicopter was used to carry out a pre-planned detailed photographic survey of the airport site.”

MAG bought Bournemouth Airport in 2001 and spent almost £50million on transforming it.

The overhaul, finished in 2011, included a new departures terminal and arrivals facility, as well as improved runway, radar, navigation and road access.

The company aimed to see three million people a year using the airport by 2015, but numbers peaked at just over a million in 2007 and 2008 and stood at 667,981 last year.

Several airlines introduced new routes from Bournemouth only to drop them.

Earlier this year, a corporate video by MAG trumpeted the benefits to local communities of its East Midlands, Manchester and Stansted airports, but only included Bournemouth fleetingly as a point on a map.

Sir Peter Rigby is chairman of the Rigby Group PLC. Its division Regional & City Airports (RCA) owns Blackpool, City of Derry, Coventry, Exeter, Norwich and Solent airports.

RCA says its vision is to “help smaller regional airports to prosper through effective management and collaboration – enabling them to benefit from the economies of scale and sharing of best practice traditionally enjoyed by larger hub airports”.

It says the company “is becoming a leading player in the UK regional airport sector”.

RCA had not commented at the time of going to press.