44 flights a night at Manston?

On the bright side, these figures are for the upper limits allowed - it's unlikely that Manston will actually take this many, simply because it's in an inconvenient location.

However, if it gets anything like this number, it would be a useful "experiment" to show everyone what full-time scheduled night flights would be like. Perhaps it would be a good idea to hold the public consultation on night flights after the Olympics...

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Support from CPRE Protect Kent

Thanet District Committee

Matters have not been all quiet on the eastern front. A number of issues have surfaced — or re-surfaced — within the District. The most significant is the proposal for night-flights from Kent International Airport, Manston.

This is a subject which has featured for some time as a dark storm cloud over Thanet, ominous and threatening but never quite ready to release its anger. It now appears that the storm is about to break.

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It's all kicking off at Lydd...

Activists prepare for battle to save countryside from the developers

The fight over Lydd airport's proposed expansion in Kent highlights the conflict awaiting the government's new planning policy framework.

Down in the marshlands of Kent, battle lines are being drawn. In Lydd, a historic gateway town near the headland of Dungeness – a desolate moonscape of gravel dunes, bungalows and tundra – the people are angry. They are angry at proposals to build more homes on the edge of town at a time when younger inhabitants are moving away. They are angry at plans to develop a series of quarries that will have conveyor belts running all night. And they are angry about the airport.

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Oympics to generate "hundreds more flights"

THE number of flights in and out of Lydd Airport could soar during the 2012 Olympics, it has emerged. Speaking at the public inquiry last week, consultant Nigel Deacon, of Airfield Wildlife Management Ltd, admitted the airport has been asked to help bring in "business guests" for the games next year. He said:

"The airport has been accepted to bring in several hundred business guests during the games. There will be significant increase in the number of flights in and out of Lydd, mostly business jets, during that short time. Other airports like Manston will have only a few extra arrivals of this kind."

Mr Deacon explained the details of the deal last Thursday, during cross-examination, as a witness for Lydd Airport.

thisiskent 4th Mar 2011

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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