Manston Aircraft Noise Maps

Here are the noise contour maps that Manston provided with their application. As you'll see, they didn't bother to provide a full set.

Click the maps to get a clearer view.

Boeing Jumbo 747-400

Arr from West	Arr from East
Dep to West	Dep to East

Boeing Jumbo 737-800

Arr from West	Arr from East
Dep to West	Dep to East

McDonnell Douglas MD-11

Arr from West	Arr from East
Dep to West	Dep to East

Comments

[Igloo]

So, if Infratil is allowed to bring Jumbos in at night, they will generate noise levels in excess of 95 decibels across the large chunk of Ramsgate which lies in the approach route. This is like having some moron revving a motorbike up outside your bedroom window. Pretty unpleasant if the windows are shut. Unbearable if they're open.

[Bewildered of Broadstairs]

'morons' often rev up outside my house at night, I am used to it. So you will get used to jets :)

[Broastairs Man]

I don't suppose the moron revving his motorbike does it, goes, comes back again, does it several times over throughout the night all over the town at the same time.

Not sure about bewildered of broadstairs, more like dork brain of broadstairs.

How is it that Thanet has managed to breed a culture of f*#k you mentality between neighbouring towns?

My local chip shops have produced more local jobs than Manston has in the last ten, is likely to do so in the next ten yet their jobs will be at risk by Manston.

Manston peddles lies about the jobs they will create. Nobody but a complete moron believes them but people use it as a smoke screen to relish in the misery inflicted on a neighbouring town. Nice.

[Maurice Byford]

The irony is that Broadstairs will also suffer. The fight contours do not take into account holding vectors and Broadstairs, Herne bay and Margate will feature much in the aircraft patterns.

There was an American study in 1975 on the noise pollution incurred where the airport was situated on a peninsular, cited conditions of wind and sea that projected the higher noise levels across the peninsular.

It is of little interest to me that the gullible in Thanet believe they will be unaffected by this. The facts are there is documentary proof of the effects of night time flight noise all of which are being covered up and ignored by both the airport and the councillors.

[Mrs Gabriel]

The noise contour map for the arrival of a 747 from the east over Ramsgate looks like a giant spermatozoa. But in this case up to 30,000 people will be fecked!

[Mrs Fixit]

How did you get hold of these? Is the full application available anywhere? I can't find anything on the TDC website apart from Bob Bayfords rather anodyne statement explaining how he's going to fix the consultation

[HBM]

Dear Mrs Fixit,

See the blog post called "The Night Flight Proposals 2011" where we have provided links to the full set of documents: Manston's proposal itself; York Aviation's economic impact assessment; Bickerdike Allen Partners' noise assessments; and maps of flight paths and noise footprints.

All in one easy-to-get-to place.

Best regards,
NoNightFlights

[T. Croucher]

I'm quite new to this argument, so please forgive my ignorance in advance. It strikes me that the most favourable solution all round would be to allow night flights, but with the caveat that between the hours of 11pm and 6am, all flights in and out do so from the western approach; planes land west to east and take-off east to west. Would someone mind telling me why this would not be acceptable?

[HBM]

Nice idea, but not practical, unfortunately...

The planes will always prefer to take off INTO the wind, and land INTO the wind - this is a safety matter, they're simply more stable that way. So whenever the wind is coming from the East, which is about one-third of the time, the planes will be coming in to land over Herne Bay. (Sometimes, like last summer, we can have several weeks of non-stop easterly winds.) Normally, they'll be coming in to land over Ramsgate about two-thirds of the time.

This means that it's not possible to impose meaningful constraints on the airport operators about where the planes fly - it's all in the lap of the weather gods!

Keep the questions coming - this is where you get straight answers!

[T. Croucher]

Thanks for the explanation HBM. Makes sense. Good luck with the campaign. It is such a shame that the airport cannot reach its full economic potential. Unfortunately it is simply in the wrong place.

[Wellington Clams mate]

Ahh, a bit like the Eu Jet failures of which TDC did nothing, and carped on about how successful that outfit was in dealing with noise mitigation. It's a pity that TDC can only blow hot air, and I am wondering if their is a similarity for Thanet's wind and of course TDC's sailing close to the legal wind?

[Maurice Byford]

One obvious fact about these maps is that it clearly illustrates the unsuitability of the positioning of Manston and why it will never be considered as a London Airport.

Unlike other successful airports Manston is surrounded by a lot of blue on maps, which sadly means that Fish are its greatest potential source of future passenger profile.

Even Southend has a far better market potential because it is nearer to London and the surrounding towns and cities including Dartford, Chelmsford and Colchester. Another important factor is that the higher population zones in Kent are as close if not closer to an alternative major airport than they are to Manston.

Maidstone to Manston = 43mins
To Gatwick = 47 mins

Anything North of Maidstone, why even consider Manston?

Which leaves a total population of 769,100 by 2018 in East and Central Kent to provide the 2,900,000 passengers for Manstons plans.

Even if the whole of Kent suddenly decided they wanted to travel, the predicted population for the county in 2018 is only going to be 1,750,000.

One can only assume the entire population of the County of Sussex will be leaving Gatwick in their droves for the sheer pleasure of flying from Manston!

[Chris French]

The map showing arrival from the west (over Herne Bay) does not truly reflect noise levels. The map suggests noise pollution as beginning at the eastern tip of Beltinge. This is a blatant untruth. Those aircraft are low and noisy throughout the whole approach over Herne Bay.

[Ken Hanney]

Why is the study performed be Bureau Veritas, which rubbished the night flight proposals, being ignored by our local politicians. The campaign should seek to make the report public.

[only fools]

Could this be a cover up for what they really want to do? I can't see airlines wanting to come to Manston it's too far away. Infratil seem to be in a big hurry to get the night flights could it be that they don't want the airport anymore & @ present it's worth nothing.
Could it be if they pull this stroke (& it's highly likely that TDC will support what there asking for) they then sell it off to the cargo cartelle, so then all we'll see is cargo planes, very little employment if any bearing in mind most of these aircraft can carry their own crews to load & unload their aircraft.
The reason I say this is in some countries the average wage is equivalent to around £4.00 per week, then there's Charles B always a big smile on his face perhaps it's the big fat bonus he may be getting when all this come about. Still there's always a good side to everything if TDC give the go-ahead we can make as much noise as we like around Thanet 24 hours a day "what's good enough for the goose is good enough for the gander".

[Local businesswoman]

Well, despite what Charles Buchanan likes to tell the papers and the Council, low cost airline operators AREN'T going to move to Manston. Easyjet have already looked at Manston and said "no, ta - not enough potential passengers in the catchment area." Ryanair said exactly the same. Flybe have operated three routes out of Manston. They cut one and are now cutting another...because they can't make money out of Manston. The airport is simply in the wrong place to be a passenger airport.

So, here come the noisy night cargo flights, which need only a handful of jobs to load and unload them. Has anyone else noticed that Manston wants to operate twice as many flights at night as they operate in the day? When that happens, we can say goodbye to our tourist-dependent jobs if they're anywhere near the flight path. What a tragedy that Honest Bob, Leader of TDC, doesn't understand the basic commercial reality of Manston and nor does he value our tourist businesses.

[Local Resident]

Manston airport is positioned at the highest point in Thanet. Late into the night and the early hours is when it is quietest, so any planes flying in and out will undoubtedly cause a noise nuisance for the whole of Thanet and not just those in the areas marked on the maps. The engine noise is heard plainly from my home in Cliftonville so it would be bedlam for anyone under the flight paths.
Common sense says 'No' to this proposal.

[Rob (Manston)]

Another point that is being missed is that it is not only the aircraft flying overhead that is creating a nuisance. All the time they are being unloaded they usually have their generators running so the aircraft has power, this creates a lot of noise. There are also the vehicles they use to unload the cargo, which have bleepers that sound continually when they are moving... on any night with the windows open it means there is much interrupted sleep, if night flying was permitted then any sleep at night will be impossible for those of us that live close to the airport perimeter.

If the day slots were full there may be some reasonable arguement to allow some night flights, but as most days nothing (other than light aircraft) fly into or out of Manston. The airport is not viable for passenger traffic and probably never will be, not only are routes into and out of Thanet not good, there is no big car parking facilities, no large hotel infrastructure to support large passenger volumes and there are not enough service facilities for turn aircraft around (catering, cleaning, refuelling etc).

The time has come for Thanet Council to open their eyes and see Manston for what it is, it will not generate jobs, it will not boost the local economy and it will not, unfortunately, ever become a major player in the passenger aviation market.

[Graham]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but at the last local elections in Thanet, didn't Labour say they would oppose night flights, and the result was that the Conservatives lost full control of Thanet council as a result, for the first time in years; even though the Conservatives did realatively well in most other parts of the country?

Surely Labour should honour this, and the Lib Dems try not be out of touch with Thanet? Perhaps No- Nightflight candidates should stand at the next local elections in all wards, if none of them are following the clear will of the people?

[Igloo]

Labour are backsliding on their promises. They are claiming that they have taken legal advice and that there is nothing they can do. However, this is patently untrue and they are now running in all directions to try to avoid explaining anything about the legal advice they claimed to have taken. It's exactly the same tactic they used when the airport was privatised. They kept trying to pretend that there was nothing they could do. It took a court case to prove that they had all of the powers they needed under planning legislation. All that was required was for them to exercise their powers. Labour came and went but one thing remained constant - a steadfast determination that TDC would not use the powers available to it to control the airport. It is going to be left to individuals who care about the area to sort this out in the courts. I just hope that everybody remembers who betrayed them and broke their promises when it comes to the next election.