Infratil selling Prestwick... Manston next?
This has been on the cards for a couple of months now. Infratil has been under increasing pressure from major share-holders in New Zealand to stop wasting time and money on the wrong side of the world.
Struggling Prestwick is almost completely dependent on a single commercially ruthless customer - a foolish and vulnerable position to have got into. When 98% of your business comes from one customer, that customer can call the shots - you've lost control of your business.
Barely struggling Manston has developed a pattern of attracting flakey customers, and has now stumbled, flat-footed, into the glare of international disapproval as a result of some particularly foolish greed.
It's not surprising that the Kiwis should want to crystallise their losses, and get home. TDC would then, of course, have to rifle through Brian White's old filing cabinets looking for a very slim folder labelled "Plan B".
The time and effort spent fussing over Manston's life support sysytem would be far better spent researching and launching a viable and sustainable "economic and social engine".
Iain Cochrane, Marko Bogoievski, Prestwick, Ryanair