Well, here's a surprise - I asked Manston and Infratil and their spin doctors to justify their absurd job figures, and there's been absolute silence. Maybe it's just me - maybe they just won't talk to me. Maybe it would help if YOU asked them...
Employment, Forecast Infratil, Manston, Night flights Thanet council's public consultation on Manston airport's night flight proposals has attracted 700 responses. The views given will help the council form its response to plans by airport operators Infratil to host an average of eight flights a night at Manston.
The authority's consultation was scaled back from plans to engage market research experts MORI and ask for views from other districts when Thanet council took legal advice that it was only a "consultee" on the plans and had no legally binding say in the matter.
Bob Bayford, Charles Buchanan, Clive Hart, Consultation, Employment, MORI, Parsons Brinckerhoff Infratil, Manston, Night flights, TDC 
Dear Charles Buchanan (CEO Manston), Maxim PR (Manston's spin doctors), Infratil (Manston's owners), and anyone who believes Manston's job forecasts:
Charles Buchanan, Employment, Forecast, Maxim PR Plans for night flights at Manston International Airport have been shot down by an independent report. Herne Bay campaigner Phil Rose said:
“This confirms a lot of what the No Night Flights campaign has been saying for the past two years. The original proposal and back-up documents submitted by Infratil were putting a very, very, positive spin on things. They were promising more than the airport could deliver, and they understated the effect night flights would have on the local population.”
Employment, Forecast, Noise, Parsons Brinckerhoff Infratil, Manston, Night flights 
Nights flights will not be the salvation of Manston airport, according to campaigners who say that a report from a leading transport consultancy backs their views.
Community groups say they do not believe allowing the flights would bring any economic benefit to the residents of Thanet, and may in fact bring harm to the area due to the impact of noise and air pollution.
Many also say that if the proposed operations went ahead, they could actually deter people who might be planning to move their businesses to the area or thinking of buying a home there.
24/7, Andrew Ogden, CPRE, Clive Hart, Employment, Forecast, Hilary Newport, Parsons Brinckerhoff, York Aviation Infratil, Manston, Night flights, TDC 
Manston airport currently runs on a skeleton crew of about 100 - the bare minimum required to handle any number of flights. Quadrupling the present number of flights wouldn’t result in a quadrupling of the present staff numbers.
The Parsons Brinckerhoff (PB) report points out that there’s plenty of staff capacity to be taken up:
[p8] Given that Manston Airport currently employs a proportionately large workforce for a small throughput, growth of passengers and freight in the short term may not necessarily lead to a significant employment and hence economic impact.
The PB report also raises a very good point which, as far as I know, has never been addressed - how much slack capacity is there, how much more traffic can Manston handle before they have to employ more people?
[p8] We would therefore like to see more evidence of the ‘threshold’ whereby Manston Airport achieves a specified level of throughput such that additional employment is required.
Next installment: Noise
Employment, Forecast, Parsons Brinckerhoff Manston, Night flights 
Night flights from Manston Airport will not create the 3,000 jobs promised by operators Infratil, an independent report says. The final document, compiled by specialists Parsons Brinckerhoff Ltd, was submitted to the council's Community Services Manager Madeline Homer on Thursday (19th Jan).
As exclusively revealed by the IoT Gazette on Friday 20th Jan, the report cast doubt on the economic argument for an average eight flights a night and claimed the environmental impact had been understated. The report said that if a night flying ban was to remain, the airport would only be excluded from 9 per cent of the scheduled freight market. It went on:
"Given that Manston Airport currently employs a proportionately large workforce for a small throughput, growth of passengers and freight in the short term may not necessarily lead to a significant employment and hence economic impact.
The report also said the analysis of the noise generated by airport had "resulted in an underestimation of the potential impacts on residents in the area".
The reported also recommended that Infratil's night flight proposal not be treated as a planning application meaning the decision on whether to adopt them could go before a full council.
thisiskent 23rd Jan 2012
Full details and analysis on this website when the report is made public.
Employment, Madeline Homer, Noise, Parsons Brinckerhoff Manston, Night flights 
Charles Buchanan (CEO, Manston Airport) from the night flights proposal:
Today some 110 staff are employed by the airport, with approximately a further 40 employed in servicing the operation of the airport. The airport currently generates £4.5m GVA (Gross Added Value) of which some £3.8m is within the Thanet economy ... development in line with the published Master Plan would (by 2018) support direct employment of over 2,000 jobs with a further 1,000 indirect and induced jobs in the wider economy. This level of employment would generate £65m GVA.
Sandra Matthews-Marsh (CEO, Visit Kent) responding to RGF funding
Tourism in East Kent contributes more than £835 million to the local economy and supports almost 18,000 jobs.
Now consider the effect that the proposed night flight timetable will have on tourism in East Kent.
24/7, Employment, Forecast, Tourism Manston, Night flights 
Up to eight flights a night could take off and land at Kent International Airport, according to plans submitted to Thanet District Council. Bosses at the airport have submitted their long-awaited night-time flight policy, and campaigners now have 12 weeks to have their say on the proposals.
Managers say allowing flights between 11pm and 7am would attract more business to the area. They are banned under the airport's current planning agreement with the council.
24/7, Bob Bayford, Charles Buchanan, Consultation, Employment, Forecast Manston, Night flights, TDC 
A Kent airport has resubmitted its proposals for night flights. Manston airport, near Ramsgate, has asked Thanet Council for permission to run at least six flights between 11pm and 7am. Bosses said the plans would create around 3,000 jobs by 2018 and are vital for the long-term future of the company. Charles Buchanan, Chief Executive at Manston, commented:
"For the airport to be commercially viable in the longer term and deliver for Kent what other airports have done for their regions, it is vital that we are allowed to compete in terms of the operating hours."
24/7, Bob Bayford, Charles Buchanan, Consultation, Employment, Forecast Manston, Night flights, TDC 
A Kent airport is asking for permission to operate night flights. Manston Airport wants Thanet District Council to allow an average of eight take-offs or landings per night. The move would allow the operation to attract new airlines and a study suggested it could create more than 3,000 jobs.
But opponents fear it could pave the way for 24-hour arrivals and departures. The proposal is for three flights between 23:00 and 23:30, two flights between 23:30 and 06:00 and three between 06:00 and 07:00.
24/7, Charles Buchanan, Employment, Forecast Manston, Night flights, TDC 
The research says that it wouldn’t. The UK exports tourists rather than importing them - more Brits fly abroad for their holidays than foreigners come here.
The UK currently runs a “tourism deficit” of £19 billion a year and about £17 billion of that flies out of the UK every year with people flying abroad on holiday. This aviation tourism deficit is costing the UK about 900,000 jobs a year because people spend their money abroad instead of here.
Employment, Forecast, Q&A, Tourism Manston, Night flights, TDC 
Indirect employment is just a way of double-counting people who are already employed in other industries. If every industry counted its indirect employment the way airports do, the number of people employed in British industry would far exceed the total UK population!
Employment, Forecast, Q&A Infratil, Manston, Night flights 
Far from it. You’ve only got to look at airports that have the kind of passenger business that Manston hopes for to see the truth:
Bristol – 439 jobs per million passengers.
Bournemouth – 408 jobs per million passengers now, and expected to fall to 247 by 2015
Prestwick (another Infratil airport) – 248 jobs per million passengers, and that was before the last two rounds of redundancies.
Bournemouth, Bristol, Employment, Forecast, Prestwick, Q&A Infratil, Manston, Night flights 
Infratil (who own Manston) also own Prestwick Airport near Glasgow. In autumn 2008 Infratil’s forecast for passenger numbers at Prestwick was 5.7 million by 2018 and 12 million by 2033...
Almost immediately, freight and passenger business plummeted, and Prestwick ran at a loss for the rest of the year. Shortly after that, 50 staff lost their job. By autumn 2010, passenger business had fallen so much that another 120 staff had been made redundant... so much for Infratil’s forecasts.
Charles Buchanan, Employment, Forecast, MasterPlan, Prestwick, Q&A Infratil, Manston, Night flights 
If only! Even the Department for Transport says that airport Master Plans tend to be so over-optimistic about future passenger numbers that it applies its own “pinch of salt” discount when it produces its national forecasts.
For example: in 1991 Manchester Airport wanted to build a second runway, and promised this would create 50,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.
The runway opened in 2001, and by 2006 there were 4,000 additional jobs at the airport. Even allowing for another 2,000 indirect and induced jobs, the promise of 50,000 extra jobs was just a flight of fancy.
Employment, Forecast, MasterPlan, Q&A Manston 
It would be if it were true. However, their promises rely on everything in Manston’s Master Plan coming good.
The Master Plan relies on a lot of other things happening, but doesn’t mention the need for scheduled night flights.
These 2,000 promised jobs won’t be created by scheduled night flights.
Infratil has never said how many jobs would be created just by the introduction of night flights.
Employment, Forecast, Q&A Infratil, Manston, Night flights Following a 90 day consultation process, Manston is starting to cut its coat according to its cloth and has announced the loss of four jobs. There's no mention of what these roles were, but hopefully the four unlucky employees will find that their skills are in demand elsewhere in Thanet and they won't spend too long between jobs.
The four posts probably account for about a third of the £350k savings that have been identified - there's no indication as to where the rest comes from. I would have assumed that, like most companies in our recessionary/doldrums economy, Manston would be running as lean and mean as it could. This would suggest the savings come from cuts, rather than increased efficiencies.
Nonetheless, true to his roots in corporate communications, Charles Buchanan tries to soften the bad news with a sprinkling of glitter... "talks have been held with representatives of a new airline that is considering introducing direct flights to New York".
Ah! The magic of New York - just slipping it in at the very end of a press article has the intended transformative effect. Unfortunately (and you knew this was coming, didn't you) the story gets thinner and thinner the harder you look.
So, who's the airline? Well, it appears to be FlyInvicta. Never heard of them? Don't feel bad about it, lots of people haven't heard of them. It's a moot point whether they actually exist as an airline yet. They first popped up in the local press in mid-July, sounding new and tentative:
More recently, FlyInvicta said on the Manston Movements fan-site:
FlyInvicta have pleasure in advising that we have held talks with Manston as well as other airports. To stop the rumour mill from working overtime, the airline will be operating from North America. FlyInvicta is a pioneering long-haul operator with plans to fly a number of Trans-Atlantic routes. No other comment will be made at this time and FlyInvicta would like to thank you for your continued support and hope that we can encourage you to fly with us.
As another contributor pointed out, all that's needed is a "credible business plan, funding sources, and a route map with aircraft and crew".
So FlyInvicta may be on the brink of greatness, but it seems to be quite a wide brink at the moment.
Charles Buchanan, Consultation, Employment, FlyInvicta, New York Manston 
Four jobs are to go at Manston Airport in a cost-cutting programme amid speculation that a new service to New York is poised for take-off. The airport, owned by New Zealand company Infratil, has been losing money on its operations and needed to cut costs to give it a more secure future.
Airport chiefs recently examined working patterns to see where cost savings could be made. This process and staff consultation has identified savings of more than £350,000 and the loss of four roles. Charles Buchanan, airport chief executive, said:
Belfast, Charles Buchanan, Edinburgh, Employment, FlyBe, Manchester, New York Outline of Project
Although KCC has previously carried out some outline feasibility work for the proposed Thanet Parkway station (most recently in July 2009), this requires significant updating and development; including more comprehensive passenger demand forecasting and a full feasibility design of the station and car park, if a robust and credible RGF bid is to be prepared. The Government is particularly interested in the job creation potential (both direct and indirect) of proposed schemes, which has not previously been a requirement of traditional transport appraisals. For these reasons, and in light of the challenging timescale for the submission of a first-round RGF bid, it was agreed with the Director of Integrated Strategy and Planning that KCC should invite three technical consultants to tender for this work.
Reasons for appointing this particular Consultant:
Employment, FOI, Forecast, KCC, Manston Parkway, RGF, SDG Manston 
