Anger as Kent leader stays away from Manston meeting

Paul Carter

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Paul Carter will be reported to KCC's standards committee after he pulled out of a meeting at Manston airport. The leader of Kent County Council Paul Carter could be reported to the authority’s watchdog on standards after failing to show at a meeting about Manston airport. Cllr Carter was due to attend Friday’s meeting of the Kent International Airport’s Consultative Committee but pulled out at the last minute and did not send a replacement.

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Minster Parkway train station en route?

Clipping: thisiskent

PROPOSALS to turn Minster railway station into a commuter hub offering big parking capacity and links to Manston are in plans about to be put before county- council leaders. The authority is faced with the task of co-ordinating efforts to make improvements to take advantage of the introduction of high-speed services to the county in December.

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Brazier's assertions

Telling it like it isn't

Following the horrifying revelation that one of our elected representatives has been misrepresenting us, I have unleashed the merciless Mrs Earplugs. Blessed with eternal youth, bionic implants and the ability to kick-box without scuffing her Manolo Blahnik's, Mrs E now has the bit firmly between her razor-sharp teeth. We're not at DefCon 5 (unbridled bloodlust), but she's getting that restless, questing look in her eyes.

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Brazier's mistake

Support act

In his submission to the Transport Committee's review of the future of aviation in the UK, Julian wrote that "KIA has the benefit of strong local support for expansion. This local support expends [sic] to the Local Authority (Thanet District Council), the County Council (Kent County Council)." What makes him think that?

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Carter prefers Manston to Boris Island

Kent County Council leader Paul Carter has hit back at Boris Johnson's call for a new airport in the Thames Estuary. Mr Johnson, the Tories' London mayoral candidate, is calling on the Government to reconsider plans for a new airport in the estuary instead of going ahead with the widely opposed plans for a third runway at Heathrow.

But Cllr Carter on the other hand believes Kent International Airport at Manston could be the solution to improve airport capacity and has invited MP Boris Johnson to see for himself.

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How much did KCC's trip to USA cost the public?

Kent County Council has asked for extra time to respond to a Freedom of Information request about the cost to the taxpayer of a recent KCC trip to America.  Deputy leader Alex King led a Kent delegation to Virginia last month to take part in celebrations to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the first English-speaking settlement in the New World.

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Cosmos pulls out of Manston as US flight plans grounded

Package holiday giant Cosmos has this morning confirmed it has pulled the plug on its planned flights to the US from Thanet's Manston Airport. The tour giant, which promised to make the Thanet airport a major departure point for flights to the United States, has failed to sell enough seats both in the UK and US.

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US flights a £20m annual boost to county's economy

Direct flights between Kent and America will boost the county's economy by at least £20 million a year, tourist chiefs have been told. The prediction was made during an event to promote the start of passenger services from Kent International Airport at Manston to Norfolk, Virginia. The once-a-week service, which begins next spring, will bring in £5m from May to October 2007, it was claimed.

And if the route becomes permanent the financial boost for Kent could be four times that figure a year if US tourists stayed for just four days each, according to Tony Freudmann, chairman of aviation consultancy firm FT International. But he warned an audience of tourist managers at the Hop Farm in Paddock Wood on Tuesday:

"We have 10,000 tickets to sell and we need to sell them as quickly as possible."

KentNews 11th Oct 2006

Direct flights to USA from Manston next year

Direct flights transatlantic flights will start from Kent International Airport next year. Norfolk International Airport in Virginia is contributing half the start up costs (£400,000) with Kent County Council and a coalition of investors...

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Direct air link to US cleared for take off

Long-promised direct flights between Kent and Virginia look set to take off next year. Senior representatives of Norfolk International Airport, Virginia, and Kent County Council are poised to sign an agreement that paves the way for new aviation links from May 2007.

A weekly charter service between Norfolk and Manston would be operated by Cosmos in the UK and CI Travel in the United States. Norfolk Airport Authority has agreed to become a financial partner and is understood to have pledged half the start-up costs. The proposed service builds on a Memorandum of Understanding between the state of Virginia and Kent signed in Richmond, Virginia, last June. One of its stated aims is the creation of an air bridge between the two regions to promote business, education and leisure links.

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Passenger flights to America from Manston planned

The county could become a gateway to the United States by next spring, Kent on Sunday can reveal. Negotiations are at advanced stages to operate passenger flights between Kent International Airport at Manston and Norfolk, Virginia, on the east coast of the US.

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Kent's investment in US event "value for money"

What were they thinking?

Kent County Council is to spend £225,000 as a joint sponsor of a major cultural festival in America, it has emerged. The council has agreed to become a key financial backer of the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington in 2007 as part of a drive to boost the number of American tourists coming to Kent. Council chiefs say the investment represents “value for money” and could eventually deliver a £50 million fillip to the county’s tourism industry.

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KCC defends £100,000 airline gamble charge

Council chiefs have rejected claims that their decision to invest £100,000 of public money in EUJet was a gamble that backfired. Cllr Alex King (Con), Kent County Council’s cabinet member for regeneration and the man responsible, said he accepted the investment was high risk but claimed it had produced "a good return" for Kent by demonstrating that a budget airline could be viable from Manston.

KCC lost its £100,000 investment when EUJet faced financial problems. The authority subsequently agreed to put in an additional 15,000 Euros to provide "working capital" to PlaneStation, the company that owned Manston Airport but which recently went into administration.

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Questions still remain over EUjet collapse

Mystery surrounds the delay in appointing administrators to failed airline EUjet. While Grant Thornton partners are sorting out the financial affairs of PlaneStation, the airline’s parent company that collapsed with estimated debts of £22million, and subsidiary London Manston Airport Plc, EUjet is not subject to the same rules.

The Irish-registered operator, which was grounded last week with the loss of at least 127 jobs and left more than 5,000 passengers stranded, is still run by its directors, including chief executive P J McGoldrick. The airline is subject to Irish law and an "interim examiner" is understood to have been appointed but this person does not have the power of administrators.

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EUJet doomed from the start

Expert claims airline was doomed from first flight

EUjet was a flawed business model that was bound to fail, according to an airline expert. The low-cost airline and its owner PlaneStation, which also owns Kent International Airport at Manston, crashed into administration on July 26 after the Bank of Scotland pulled the plug on PlaneStation’s credit line, thought to be around £25million.

The collapse left thousands of passengers stranded overseas, cost hundreds of jobs and cast a shadow over the longer-term viability of scheduled services operated out of Kent. It was also embarrassing to Kent County Council which had invested £100,000 in the fledgling airline to bring it to Manston.

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New era dawns at Kent airport

Kent is finally joined by air to the rest of Europe. EUjet’s new low cost services got off to a flying start yesterday when the first flight - a Fokker-100 - took off from Kent International Airport at Manston, at 6.15am for Dublin. It marked the start of a service that is set to boost east Kent and turn Kent at last into an aviation hub. It has already brought 300 new jobs to Thanet and there could be 100 more over the next 18 months.

Flights on day one were 75 per cent full, with more than 600 passengers flying to Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Dublin, Nice and Girona. A smaller number flew back to Manston, reflecting the lack of marketing effort by EUjet at the destination airports. By the end of the year, EUjet will be flying to 22 destinations including Prague, Madrid, Milan, Palma, Malaga, Turin, Edinburgh and Manchester.

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Storm gathers over airport leak

Council chiefs are demanding urgent talks with ministers after reports that the Government is considering building a new airport for London on the north Kent marshes near Cliffe. According to a report in the Financial Times, Transport Secretary Stephen Byers is weighing up the idea of an airport at Cliffe and the Isle of Grain to cope with additional air traffic over the next 20 years. The leaders of both Medway and Kent County Council are furious at the prospect.

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