A reader writes

I should like to make a few points, of which Cllr Carter should be informed! Firstly, he says that Manston's runway is 2,752m. When I checked, it was 2,658m. Heathrow has two runways - 3,500m and 3,570m, with Gatwick's one at 3,750m. So nowhere near comparable.

He says that Manston "is able to cater for all modern jet aircraft"; that's all very well, but a fully-laden 747 or 767 could not safely take off because there is no room to abort a take off in case of problems. If you remember, an Afghan DC-8 almost came a cropper on 11th August 2010 when, as it was later discovered, it tried to take off 25,000 lbs overweight!

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Nostrildamus (D)

Infratil don’t want night flights... they just want the shoulder periods.

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Nostrildamus (F)

Infratil don’t want night flights... but TDC’s refusal would provide them with a handy cover story for leaving.

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Infratil top brass come to Kent

Kiwis fly in

All along the flight path, the whispered words are spreading like wildfire: the bigwigs of a company on the other side of the world are coming to Kent on Monday. I'm thrilled at the prospect of these well-travelled, high-spending visitors plastering shop counters with their New Zealand dollars, but I can't help wondering why exactly they're coming, and why now?

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Manston eco-village

Inventing the future

Grab a hefty chunk of the TDC Regeneration budget. This is the prize money. The competition: affordable, quick-build, long-life, green housing. The location: Manston's runway, 2.7km of high performance concrete and tarmac, ready-made foundations for just about anything.

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Manston airport sale "not ruled out"

Clipping: thisiskent

THE chief executive of Infratil has not ruled out selling stakes in Manston airport if a buyer can be found, according to a business website. Marko Bogoievski is quoted on www.stuff.co.nz in an article prompted by the New Zealand based company posting big business losses. The website reports that analysts said Infratil's European airports, including Kent International Airport and Glasgow Prestwick, and energy developments were the most likely assets to go on the block.

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An airport's not the best route to regeneration

Regen Park

"Regeneration work in Thanet includes improving buildings and public spaces in our towns, development of business parks and working with community groups to help bring their ideas to fruition to improve the area. The emphasis in regeneration is on working in partnership with a wide range of organizations, so that together we can make Thanet a quality place to live, an attractive location for investment and an enjoyable area to visit."

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Location, location, location matters for airports too

Manston isn't Outer London. It's out of London.

Well, there are several airports that have leapt on the global branding bandwagon and smuggled the word 'London' into their name, with varying degrees of geographical accuracy.

(A special mention must go to "London Ashford Airport": 60 miles from London, 13 miles from Ashford, 1 mile from Lydd. It seems the greater the distance, the more prominent the billing - it's full title is actually "Jupiter Brazil London Ashford Airport".)

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By their logos shall ye know them

A man running away from a mess on the ground labelled "Airport". 

This is prescient, you mark my words.

Manston is a poor investment

No quarter? Manston's impending doom

Infratil executive Tim Brown would not comment directly on one analyst's suggestion that Infratil's other under-performing European airports could be next [to be sold] but said it was hard to run with a loss on a low-return asset in the current environment. Around 75% of Infratil's investments, including Wellington Airport and TrustPower, were performing well, Brown said. "You have to say to yourself, can you have 25% of the business not generating a return? In this type of environment you can't."

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Recycling Manston Airport

Rearrange Kent International Airport

Itinerant oriental pork ant. Ran into proletarian kitten. Anoint potential errant irk. Better still, turn it into something more useful than an anagram...

One of the commonest uses for an old airport is as the foundations for a new airport. Understandably - if it's in the right place...

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Manston keeps failing. What next?

Controlled descent...

Infratil bought Manston for £17 million and are happy to spend £10-20 million on it before pulling the plug, so from their point of view KIA is small but far from trivial. Infratil's European airport investments are performing poorly. Infratil are big enough to take the hit by cross-subsidising, but not indefinitely.

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Changes to airport master plan

Clipping: thisiskent

Thanet council’s leading group is to consider a report recommending changes to the Manston airport draft master plan. On Thursday, April 9 the Tory cabinet will discuss recommendations made by its airport working party, chaired by Cllr Bob Bayford, in response to proposals put forward by airport owners Infratil.

Proposed amendments include more specific measurable targets on the airport’s environmental goals including sustainability, becoming carbon neutral, and emission control including proposals on airline offsetting measures.

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