Kent County Council has been forced to reveal details of its unsuccessful £10.8 million bid for Government money to develop services for Manston airport. Campaigners, No Night Flights, challenged KCC's refusal to release details of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) application.
FOI, KCC, Manston Parkway 
Special pleading, spineless bleatingBosses at Manston are calling on the government to implement a "congestion charge" at London's main airports because of the "devastating impact" of Air Passenger Duty (APD) on smaller airports. The proposal is part of Manston's submission to the government's consultation on APD, which it is estimated could cost the public, visitors and businesses an extra £1bn a year.
Manston is arguing that the tax will severely hit regional economies, and in particular the tourism sector, by hindering the growth of regional airports. As a result Manston is proposing that the most effective way to deliver the government's "Better not Bigger" initiative is to set APD levels at a lower level for uncongested regional airports with significant available capacity to help alleviate congestion and improve the passenger experience at the main London airports.
APD, Charles Buchanan, Forecast, Tourism Manston 
Bitter-sweetenerManston's boss has defended efforts to persuade the government to underwrite the costs of a new service out of the Kent airport. Chief executive Charles Buchanan said subsidies from the public purse were commonplace and it was unfair to describe them as sweeteners.
His comments follow our disclosure that KCC and Infratil, which operates the airport, had sought to persuade ministers to provide £600,000 to underwrite a twice-daily service out of Manston for the first three years of its operation.
Air Anon, Charles Buchanan, Forecast, KCC, MasterPlan, RGF, York Aviation 
The government has been urged to offer a £600,000 "sweetener" to an unnamed commercial airline planning a new daily service from Manston airport, it has emerged.
The airport operator Infratil is in advanced confidential talks with an unidentified airline which has plans for a twice-daily service to an unnamed European destination from next April. Now it has been revealed Kent County Council and operators Infratil pressed for a taxpayers’ handout to underwrite the costs of the service for three years, according to documents released under the Freedom of Information Act.
There seems to be an endless supply of consultants, ready willing and able to tell the emperor of the day how lovely his clothes are, and how much lovelier the next suit will be.
Next up in line is an outfit called Steer Davies Gleave who aim "to provide unrivaled advice that helps deliver better transportation solutions to everyone, everywhere". And freedom from the nagging pedantry of spell-checkers, presumably.
Manston The Thanet Labour group has tabled a resolution over night flights from Manston airport at the district council's next meeting. The motion calls for the council to adopt a policy of not allowing scheduled or planned flights between 11pm and 7am and to rule that any arrivals or departures in an extra hour either side be subject to a fine. Exceptions to the ban would include "mercy flights" and flights for medical emergencies under Labour's proposals.
Bob Bayford, David Green, S106 Manston, Night flights, TDC Tapping into the wisdom of crowds, and I know you're a wise lot...
We're VERY keen to set up sound-activated video recording systems along (and near) Manston's flight paths, particularly in Ramsgate and the surrounding area.
The idea is to be able to automatically capture movies of planes as they go past, or over (or over and over and over, in the case of training circuits).
At the moment, we don't care if this is an off-the-shelf solution, or some brilliant bodged together Heath Robinson-esque invention - so long as it works.
Open questions 
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.
Air Anon, Employment, FOI, Forecast, KCC, Manston Parkway, RGF 
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.
Employment, FOI, Forecast, KCC, RGF 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:
Employment, FOI, KCC, Manston Parkway, RGF, Subsidy 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.
Alan Poole, Charles Buchanan, Employment, Forecast, Health, York Aviation Manston, Night flights A reader writes:
Hi All,
Am sure some of you were aware, but we weren't... the complaints phone line at Manston is no longer in service!
I was phoning an engaged tone for over an hour the other evening to complain about the landing practice that had been taking place over Ramsgate.
I was livid about:
The corporate slime that operate Manston must be brought to account!
charles.buchanan@manstonairport.com
Complaints, Dear Reader Manston 
New flights have started between Manston and Belfast's George Best airport. The first of the Flybe services arrived in Thanet at lunchtime on Thursday. Flights will run between Manston and Belfast three times a week on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. The route takes 90 minutes and will initially run for the summer, with plans to extend it if the service proves popular.
Belfast, Charles Buchanan, Edinburgh, FlyBe, Forecast, Manchester, MasterPlan Manston 
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.
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.
Employment, Forecast, York Aviation Manston 
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."
Employment, Forecast Manston Campaigners against Manston night flights were left fuming this week after county council officials refused to release details of their bid for a new train station at the airport.
KCC, Manston Parkway Manston Subject: Flight last night
Message: Hi, just wanted to let you know for your records that once again a plane landed at Manston around 11.15pm last night (30th May 2011) I was in my garden with my dog at the time. It wasn't one of the largest cargo planes, but was still very noisy and appeared to be a medium sized passenger plane - but I'm no expert so this may not be correct. I couldn't see a name / logo. Once the plane had passed there was terrific amount of turbulence afterwards.
S. (Nethercourt resident)
There was a night flight arrival over Ramsgate at 11.17 last night - possibly the 10.22 late arriving, though it sounded louder than a passenger plane!
A.P.
later...
Last night`s late flight coming over at 11.17 pm was, in fact, the 10.22 pm passenger plane late. I know someone who was on the plane. He said that they were going to take them to Gatwick and lay on buses, but there was uproar on the plane which resulted in them getting permission to land here. So now Thanet travellers know that if they cause trouble on a late plane we will have to put up with being disturbed.
A.P.
Dear Reader Manston, Night flights 
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:
Employment, Forecast, York Aviation Infratil, Manston, Night flights 
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.
Belfast, Employment, FlyBe, Forecast, Radar, York Aviation Infratil, Manston, Night flights, TDC 
Those nice people at AEF (the Aviation Environment Federation) have managed to shoe-horn a little bit of sense into Boris' more grandiose ramblings. The London Plan is now restricted to, er, London - rather than the whole south east, and it now contains a commitment to phasing out night flights. Great work, guys!
AEF, Boris Johnson, London Night flights 
