Reality hits home, Infratil leave town

Delusion has finally been swept away by the onslaught of reality and Infratil are throwing in the towel. This has been a long time coming, and Nostrildamus predicted it in November 2010.

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Manston Airport has been put up for sale. Bosses at Kent International Airport told staff at 10.30am yesterday (Friday) morning. The shock decision was made by owners Infratil. The New Zealand-based company also plans to sell its airport at Prestwick near Glasgow.

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Manston's Hall of Shame

Here's a brand new service from the nice people at NoNightFlights... As well as the easy to use Complain! page, you now have another outlet for your screams of rage, whimpers of frustration, table-thumping, etc, etc. Pop over to the Hall of Shame page and let rip...

Manston Parish Council: night flights meeting

Hello,

My husband and I have been reading your newsletters with interest. When we moved to Manston in 2003, the level of activity at the airport was acceptable. However, we were totally unaware of the failed proposals that had been submitted in the past. We have been complaining to Infratil on a regular basis and, in line with comments from some of your subscribers, Infratil rarely acknowledged our complaint. We have since discovered that there are actually two links to two different complaint forms online. Since we have used your link, we have been receiving the usual standard reply, but we keep plugging!

For us, it's not "just" the night flights issue - often during the day the ghastly smell of jet fumes pervades our small development, and our houses (even with windows closed) and we have been concerned about pollution when jets linger on the apron. For my part, I am at home all day, so there is no escape for me!

We thought you might be interested to know (if you don't already!) that Manston Parish Council has convened a special meeting at 6pm at the Village Hall, Preston Road, on Friday 11 November. The Parish Council is keen to know the views of local residents in order to present "our" overall opinion to TDC.

There is a caveat on the invitation... The meeting is open only to Manston residents whose names appear on the current electoral role!

Kind regards,

Manston resident

Oh. There goes another one.

28th October 2011 at 23:30 over Herne Bay

A noisy cargo plane, which Manston's complaints department will undoubtedly tell me is a late arrival.

I learn from Twitter it was N383WA, a World Cargo Airways McDonnell Douglas MD-11.

As well as being one of the noisier planes to use Manston, the MD-11 is an incomprehensibly badly designed plane with a startlingly poor accident and safety record.

Visit www.airlinesafety.com for full details. I warn you, this is not for the faint-hearted.

Does Manston already have a night flight schedule?

The proof may be sitting in your email account

If we all get cracking on this, we may be able to present our case to Infratil and TDC at Friday's KIACC meeting.

The infuriatingly poor responses that are churned out by Manston's complaints department do actually contain tiny grains of truth. With enough of these facts in one place, we can piece together an accurate picture of what's really happening.

Most email programs will let you search by sender, or by contents. Have a search through your emails for anything that came from one of these addresses:

elaine.tanner@kia-m.com
elaine.tanner@manstonairport.com
customer.services@kia-m.com
customer.services@manstonairport.com

or anything that contains the phrase:

cause to complain about the operation of the Airport

We all know that most of what appears in the email is the same old nonsense every time. The important bit that we're interested in is the stuff that usually appears in a little box about a third of the way down - the details of the flight(s) you complained about.

These are the details that we would like you to send in: the Date, the Time, the Operator and flight details, and any other comments that Manston included about the flight(s). Even if you've only got one of these emails left on your PC, please send us the details, because taken together with all the rest it will help complete the jigsaw.

We're particularly interested in Cargolux, Iran Air and Egypt Air flights, but every piece of information you send us will be useful, and much appreciated.

Send whatever you've got to: NoNightFlights@gmail.com

Infratil complaints

Some of our readers have been asking who they should complain to about Infratil, the owners of Manston airport. And some of our readers have been telling us about who they have complained to about Infratil.

As a public service, we shall be helping the first group by telling them about the second group's efforts. First up: the New Zealand High Commission in London.

The New Zealand High Commission is an overseas post of the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The focus of the High Commission's work is managing New Zealand's political, economic and trade relations with the United Kingdom and Ireland. They have now been told that "Infratil is as welcome in Thanet as a nasty rash", which probably came as a surprise to them.

More suggestions welcome.

Woken in the small hours, 10th July

Thanet District Council's Penny Button Penny.Button@thanet.gov.uk has special responsibility for Manston Airport. Here's what she had to say to one of the many unhappy residents who contacted her:

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Thank you for your recent enquiry regarding an aircraft movement associated with Kent International Airport. The statutory powers available to Thanet District Council to deal with noise exclude aircraft noise, however, we do have a voluntary Town & Country Planning Act S106 agreement with the airport operator which contains some sanctions with regard to aircraft movements.

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In Manston, no one can hear you scream...

A reader writes:

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Hi All,

Am sure some of you were aware, but we weren't... the complaints phone line at Manston is no longer in service!

I was phoning an engaged tone for over an hour the other evening to complain about the landing practice that had been taking place over Ramsgate.
 
I was livid about:

1. The time of the landings 8pm to 9:30pm ish,
2. That I'd wasted an hour of my time calling a line that no longer operates,
3. The tone of the security guard I spoke with on a separate line, who informed me that the number was no longer functioning.

The corporate slime that operate Manston must be brought to account!

charles.buchanan@manstonairport.com

charles.buchanan@manstonairport.com

When is a schedule not a schedule?

It's worth complaining to Manston for two reasons: they have to record and report it; and they tell you exactly which plane you were complaining about. With enough information about which planes and carriers misbehave, and when, we may be able to spot if there is method to their badness. Cynical curmudgeon that I am, I can't help wondering if there's an unwritten schedule operating.

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Airport Working Party, 19 May 2009

Hours' worth of minutes

Dear reader, this is how some of us frittered our lives. There's plenty to pick over here, all comments welcome. I've added paragraph numbering for ease of reference and some comments (original version on TDC's website HERE). Council Officer in charge of the AWP: Charles Hungwe.

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Better monitoring needs better radar

Altitude thickness

In the Olden Days (2005), Manston’s radar wasn’t good enough to tell them exactly where their planes were. They couldn’t tell the exact height because they only had Primary Surveillance Radar.

In the Modern Age (2009) they also have Secondary Surveillance Radar (they buy a feed from the MoD) so they can now tell the height of planes as they pass over Herne Bay. And elsewhere, presumably.

But they don’t record it.

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