For the benefit of the far-flung audience I should explain - this is my local airport - originally a military site, it finally became a civilian airport 15 years ago. Although it has been a commercial airport during the years of low-cost air travel and a vast increase in popular casual tourism, such as European city breaks, it has never made money, or attracted any of the major low-cost airlines to use the airport.
A brave, but very badly planned, effort to start a low-cost airline that would fly out of Manston was abandoned within a year I think. The flights were only cheap on weekdays during term time - and flew to a decreasing number of destinations. Since then we have had flybe flights to Manchester, Belfast (rapidly cancelled) and Edinburgh. These ceased last year I think. Apart from a few charter flights, the majority of the business was freight - carried in dreadful, aging 747s which travelled above our house, so low that you could count the rivets. In the past there were Antonovs that made the plates rattle - but that was pre 2003 when I moved here. Apart from being a Mecca for dodgy carriers with poor safety records, Manston didn't really seem to be much of a business and was known to be losing about £3-4m p.a. The owner's solution to this state of affairs was to say that if they could have night flights the airport would be viable.
Charles Buchanan - an a rare visit from a BA plane to Manston - this was to suggest success.
Another factor to be considered is that it is sited on a peninsula - with a very limited footfall. When I moved here I was surprised that the estate agents were promoting it as an attraction - I couldn't see how it would work financially. The final project was 3 daily KLM flights to Schipol - from where Thanetians could fan out into the rest of the world. These soon reduced to 2 daily flights, and might have dwindled further if events hadn't overtaken them.
HOWEVER
it appears that the majority of local people - especially those who didn't live under the flight path (and some who did) loved the airport. For one local councillor it was apparently a badge of pride "Other councillors say "Oh - you've got an airport". Personally I wish they were saying "Oh - you've got a university." Many people feel emotional about it because of the WW2 connections - I can understand that.
For some years there has been a division between people who were fighting against night flights, and those who believed the Airport Manager, Charles Buchanan's assertions that allowing night flights would create "thousands" of extra jobs. At its peak the airport employed 150 people - how 3-4 night flights a day were going to multiply jobs was a question for the wise. However, the Chair of the local Chamber of Commerce, David Foley, who is an intelligent man with considerable knowledge of the local economy, back up this ludicrous claim and many local people believed that it was true and that all that was standing in the way of massive progress and full employment, was a handful of posh blow-ins (DFLs - Down from London) like me, with our ludicrous demands for sleep.
In addition to a profound local belief that the airport is viable, there are gangs of people from Folkestone, Whitstable and Rochester who are devotees of having a local airport - so that they don't have to use Gatwick (only not so local that they actually have to hear the planes, or breathe the polluted air). Even in their wildest dreams, Manston was never going to provide the range of flights and destinations of Gatwick - so unless these supporters dedicated themselves only to going to the destinations Manston could offer, going to Gatwick or Heathrow was still going to be a reality for most of them. Of course they could have flown to Schipol and then waited 7 hours for a transfer to Athens or whereever... is that really preferable to a couple of hours on the M25?
This was the state of play until May 14th (or was it 15th?) when the airport closed. I will write a further post to bring this issue up to date. Is it significant that the airport closed on a Full Moon? No, but quite symbolic.
A brave, but very badly planned, effort to start a low-cost airline that would fly out of Manston was abandoned within a year I think. The flights were only cheap on weekdays during term time - and flew to a decreasing number of destinations. Since then we have had flybe flights to Manchester, Belfast (rapidly cancelled) and Edinburgh. These ceased last year I think. Apart from a few charter flights, the majority of the business was freight - carried in dreadful, aging 747s which travelled above our house, so low that you could count the rivets. In the past there were Antonovs that made the plates rattle - but that was pre 2003 when I moved here. Apart from being a Mecca for dodgy carriers with poor safety records, Manston didn't really seem to be much of a business and was known to be losing about £3-4m p.a. The owner's solution to this state of affairs was to say that if they could have night flights the airport would be viable.
Charles Buchanan - an a rare visit from a BA plane to Manston - this was to suggest success.
Another factor to be considered is that it is sited on a peninsula - with a very limited footfall. When I moved here I was surprised that the estate agents were promoting it as an attraction - I couldn't see how it would work financially. The final project was 3 daily KLM flights to Schipol - from where Thanetians could fan out into the rest of the world. These soon reduced to 2 daily flights, and might have dwindled further if events hadn't overtaken them.
HOWEVER
it appears that the majority of local people - especially those who didn't live under the flight path (and some who did) loved the airport. For one local councillor it was apparently a badge of pride "Other councillors say "Oh - you've got an airport". Personally I wish they were saying "Oh - you've got a university." Many people feel emotional about it because of the WW2 connections - I can understand that.
For some years there has been a division between people who were fighting against night flights, and those who believed the Airport Manager, Charles Buchanan's assertions that allowing night flights would create "thousands" of extra jobs. At its peak the airport employed 150 people - how 3-4 night flights a day were going to multiply jobs was a question for the wise. However, the Chair of the local Chamber of Commerce, David Foley, who is an intelligent man with considerable knowledge of the local economy, back up this ludicrous claim and many local people believed that it was true and that all that was standing in the way of massive progress and full employment, was a handful of posh blow-ins (DFLs - Down from London) like me, with our ludicrous demands for sleep.
In addition to a profound local belief that the airport is viable, there are gangs of people from Folkestone, Whitstable and Rochester who are devotees of having a local airport - so that they don't have to use Gatwick (only not so local that they actually have to hear the planes, or breathe the polluted air). Even in their wildest dreams, Manston was never going to provide the range of flights and destinations of Gatwick - so unless these supporters dedicated themselves only to going to the destinations Manston could offer, going to Gatwick or Heathrow was still going to be a reality for most of them. Of course they could have flown to Schipol and then waited 7 hours for a transfer to Athens or whereever... is that really preferable to a couple of hours on the M25?
This was the state of play until May 14th (or was it 15th?) when the airport closed. I will write a further post to bring this issue up to date. Is it significant that the airport closed on a Full Moon? No, but quite symbolic.
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