City leader names BA as mystery firm

John Gilbey: leak

Clipping: thisiskent

A TOP Kent politician is the latest person to name British Airways as the firm set to move into Manston. Thanet council called an emergency meeting last month to change regulations of the airport's night flights in the belief that a new freight operator was about to relocate there. Despite widespread speculation that British Airways World Cargo was the firm set to move in, no formal announcement has since been made. But in a meeting last week, Canterbury City Council leader John Gilbey said:

"My understanding is that Kent International Airport has been approached to relocate a long haul international freight operation to Manston from its existing base. Infratil have therefore been asked to facilitate the relocation of this company to KIA and secondly confirm that they will be able to operate between the hours of 6am and 11.30pm."

He later confirmed he believed the company in question is BA. An airport spokesman said he did not know how Cllr Gilbey had come by the information and refused to disclose who the operator would be until the deal had been finalised.

Meanwhile, the airport's expansion plan has been backed by Conservative leader David Cameron's new economy spokesman. David Freud used the Lord Mayor of Canterbury's annual free lecture to say the airport is the key to regeneration in east Kent. Mr Freud, who lives near Sandwich, said:

"I am appalled at how bad we are in this country about building infrastructure. My solution to Heathrow is to build a rail link to Manston. It's so obvious. It is stunning that we have an airport like that, with one of the longest runways in the country, yet someone decided not to link it to a railway line three miles away. It would do more for the growth of Kent than any other project and would solve the problem of London's fourth airport at a stroke."

Mr Freud joins Mayor of London Boris Johnson on the list of senior Tories to support the airport.

Comments

[onlyfools]

No way are British Airways world cargo coming to Thanet, all this because a couple of their aircraft landed here a couple of years ago due to adverse weather conditions, out come the camera's front page news, TDC wobbled in their boots @ the thought of it, & almost gave in to Infratil, still they saved a few red faces when a couple of weeks later BA said they were not coming here. It all started when those two aircraft landed here, Infratil would have spoken to BA asking them wether they would use the airport in the future, & BA out of good maners would have said yes but with no intention of doing so, come on use your loaf Gatwick, Heathrow, & Luton are in the right areas right in the middle of it, it would be stupid to relocate to Manston would it not, 50 miles from the M25 with the cost of fuel rising all the time, two lane dual carriage ways, two lane motorway sensible no way pedro, personally I think Infratil would like to sell the airport to someone like Cargo lux but would need the night flying to do so.