Talks continue over airport job losses

Potential job losses at Manston airport are still a reality as the statutory consultation with its staff ended this week. Airport chief executive Charles Buchanan confirmed that talks were ongoing after the minimum 90-day period was fulfilled this week.

Meanwhile, the airport will submit a new proposal for expansion to the council's Airport Working Group next month. Campaigners against the expansion oppose Buchanan's plans as the possibility of noisy night flights would affect their sleep and quality of life.

Buchanan understands the concerns but believes the impact of the expansion must be balanced with the economic benefits. Plans to welcome a major airline are still being negotiated.

IoT Gazette 24th Jun 2011

A closer look at that bid

The once-secret KCC funding bid

Bureaucracy being what it is, KCC and Infratil were obliged to spell out in detail the brazen cheek of their cash plea. Do please remember that Infratil is a New Zealand-based investment company, and that whatever profits it can (finally) squeeze out of this lemon of an airport will be going straight back to their antipodean investors, still smarting from years of multi-million pound losses.

Click to read more ...

Yet another job forecast

From the once-secret KCC funding bid

What a wondrous thing is the Freedom of Information Act. Without it, we wouldn't know what KCC had said to the money-bags at BIS in their plea for free money. They have repeatedly tried to dodge FOI requests, until finally cornered by our tireless truth-seekers.

It will come as no surprise to the more cynical of our international readership that it's not just the tone and emphasis of what KCC and Infratil say in their bid that differs from what they've been saying publicly, it's the numbers too.

Click to read more ...

KCC's empty begging bowl

In the middle of last year, the Government (in the form of the Department for Business Innovation and Skills - BIS) launched the Regional Growth Fund (RGF). The RGF aims to "support projects and programmes that lever private sector investment creating economic growth and sustainable employment. It aims particularly to help those areas and communities currently dependent on the public sector to make the transition to sustainable private sector-led growth and prosperity".

Across the length and breadth of our proud nation, there was a cacophony of snorts and oinks as snouts were pressed to the trough, greedy for their share of the £1.4 billion on offer. KCC was there, looking for a handout to support their crackpot proposal for a Parkway station at Manston, and some free money for the airport. Here's why they failed:

Click to read more ...

Protesters claim research is misleading

Campaigners against proposals for regular night flights at Manston airport have questioned research claiming growth would provide 3,000 jobs. Campaigners from the No To Night Flights group questioned the basis for the figures. They claim Bournemouth airport handles 1 million passengers with 247 jobs and Stansted estimated its jobs total will soon fall to 330 per 1 million passengers.

Click to read more ...

Where do Manston's job forecasts come from?

Only the crumbliest, flakiest statistics...

There is an outfit called Airports Council International Europe (ACI Europe), a trade body for airport operators, whose key objective is:

"Cohesion between airports and industry partners in order to improve the public perception of civil aviation and in particular to ensure a clear understanding of the social and economic benefits of environmentally sustainable air service and the conditions necessary for the delivery of these benefits."

In 2002, they commissioned York Aviation to produce a report entitled "The social and economic impact of airports in Europe". York Aviation describe themselves as:

"A specialist firm of air transport consultants providing a complete consultancy service for the airports business, including aviation policy advice, economic impact assessment, air traffic forecasting, and specialist advice on airport capacity assessment and planning."

York Aviation is an associate member of ACI Europe.

• Their report was based on data from 2001, and was published in December 2004. Get it here.
• Less than a fifth (59 of 331, 18%) of ACI Europe's member airports were analysed to produce the report.
• At the levels of workload that apply to Manston's Master Plan (between 1 and 4 million passengers a year) they analysed 11 of 80, or 14% of the ACI Europe member airports.
• From this sample, they arrived at an "arithmetic average" of 1,034 jobs per million passengers. Compare this to the actual figures in the UK at the time in these graphs.
• York Aviation's forecast of 2,070 direct jobs at Manston in 2018 is based on applying this number to the 2 million passengers a year projected in Manston's Master Plan.

Job forecasts based on ten year old statistics, from a tiny sample, applied to an "aspirational" growth projection, seven years into the future. I think raising Thanet's hopes on the strength of this is simply cruel.

Manston's Master Plan

Science, Art, or just Crystal Balls?

Time for a bit of time travelling. Cast your mind forward, if you will, to a point in time a couple of years after the Olympics. Not the London Olympics, the next lot, in Rio de Janeiro. Whoosh... you're in the year 2018. It's hard to know what your life will be like then, or what the world around you will be like.

Any idea how much it will cost to fill up your car, or what you'll be filling it with? Or how many people will be living in your house? Or who will be running the country? As the marvellous Yogi Berra  put it: "It's tough to make predictions, especially about the future."

Click to read more ...

Manston's job forecasts

Optimism or Deceit?

Bless 'em, they've got to spin the best yarn they can to persuade TDC to play ball over night flights, so Manston commissioned York Aviation to spin it for them. Cruelly dubbed by some as "the porkies from the Yorkies", the report from the independent aviation consultants has plucked some enticingly large numbers out of thin air.

They state, with what is intended as reassuring confidence, that by 2018 Manston will have created 2,070 direct jobs by handling 2,286,000 passengers a year - that's 1,104 jobs per million passengers. Let's see how that stacks up against reality:

Click to read more ...

Airport expansion could bring 3,500 jobs

New research for Manston airport owners Infratil shows that the airport could create 3,500 jobs in the local economy, but only if more flexibility is allowed for night flights. The study by aviation consultants York Aviation into the economic impact of Manston suggests it would contribute nearly £65 million a year to the local economy by 2018, if its masterplan development is realised.

The research indicates the airport would provide direct employment for 2,070 people and a further 1,035 jobs in the wider economy by 2018, on the basis of the masterplan. The findings reinforce the claims in the airport's masterplan and Infratil's vision of developing a South East regional airport that would offer scheduled passenger services, chartered flights and handling international freight.

Click to read more ...

BBC: Biased Broadcast Coverage?

Yesterday saw the official launch of Manston's latest bid to stuff our ears full of planes, round the clock. Charles Buchanan got favourable coverage on BBC TV, and uncritical coverage on BBC Radio Kent. Not everybody is pleased...

---

I saw the news today and felt like hitting the idiot who claims 3000 jobs will be created. What about the thousands of people who will have interrupted sleep and just do not want this????? I feel so angry and helpless.

Click to read more ...

Another bid for Night Flights

Headline Findings
By 2018, Manston, as Kent's international airport, through delivering its Master Plan would:

• Generate an additional £65m Gross Value Added (GVA) for the East Kent economy;
• Create 2,070 direct jobs, and a further 1,035 indirect and induced jobs;
• Attract 2,286,000 passengers and handle 167,500 tonnes of freight;
• Support a balanced freight and passenger customer base;
• Create a sustainable and commercially viable South East regional airport.

Click to read more ...

Nothing to smile about

The economics of the marketplace are impartial and unforgiving, grimly scything down any business models that are weak, lame or faltering.

Plenty of people want to go to Manchester, and plenty of people want to come to East Kent. Evidently, not enough people want to travel between the two. So the Manchester route failed. Within a year, we'll find out how many people want to travel between East Kent and Belfast.

Click to read more ...

Manston discussion put back

Clipping: thisiskent

PLANS for public consultation over the Manston airport nightflights application have been put on hold. Thanet council's bosses met with airport owner Infratil on Monday to recommend it comes up with a revised proposal with fewer flights at night. A report by the council's consultants Bureau Veritas, experts in the aviation industry, suggests cutting the number of night flights by a quarter.

Click to read more ...

Planning permission needed for Manston

Cllr Clive Hart - Leader of Thanet Labour Group:

I'm pleased to see that the Conservative group at TDC agree with us that the current night flying application is unacceptable. I wish to make it absolutely clear that our Labour Group is supportive...

Click to read more ...

Video snippets from RTC 25th October

Many thanks to our Multimedia Department (Outside Broadcast Unit) for the following video snippets from the Ramsgate Town Council meeting at Chatham House School on 25th October...

Click to read more ...

Night flights may not be answer for jobs

Maurice Byford

Clipping: thisiskent

IN THE letters page of the Isle of Thanet Gazette over recent weeks there have been passionate letters supporting the proposal by Infratil for night flights over Thanet as a means to expand the airport services at Manston. While I support the proposal of expansion and the attempts by the airport to attract an airline to operate out of Thanet it is clear to me that the proposals set out for the night flights option are extremely misguided.

Click to read more ...

Night flight debate over east Kent rages on as consultation nears

Victor Hibben

Clipping: thisiskent

OPPOSITION is mounting to the threat of sleep-busting night flights above Herne Bay. Kent International Airport owner Infratil is asking Thanet District Council to overturn the ban on regular night flying, which could lead to up to six cargo planes a night flying directly over the town.

Click to read more ...

Gale's View on night flights (Oct 2010)

Turncoat

Ten days before the May 2010 general election, Roger Gale wrote "I have never supported night flights from Manston and do not propose to do so." Click here to see for yourself. Six months later, he writes this...

Click to read more ...

Manston-Edinburgh flights start

Airline Flybe is to launch a service to Manchester from Manston from the autumn. The announcement comes on the day Kent International Airport launches its Edinburgh service. The Manchester schedule is to start from September 6.

Meanwhile, scheduled flights returned to Kent International Airport when Flybe's Manston-Edinburgh service took off for the first time last Thursday (20th May 2010).

Click to read more ...

Jobs created at Manston for Flybe flights

The new Flybe daily passenger service from Manston to Edinburgh has helped to create 20 new jobs at Kent International Airport. Airport owners Infratil say all the new recruits all live locally. Their task will be to ensure the passengers of Flybe, Newmarket Holidays and CI Travel which operates charter flights and holidays to Jersey, "have the best possible experience when passing through the airport", says the company.

The new members of staff will be responsible for check-in and customer service, as well as sales and marketing, operating the shop and the security of the airport. Manston now employs 112 staff to manage the airport's passenger and freight operations, including the new recruits who have just completed their training.

Click to read more ...