The Parkway Station fiasco develops

KCC are asking for £10m as a starter for the hundreds (?) of millions the station will eventually cost - as if they can't think of anything better to with that kind of money. Mind you, if the China Gateway saga is anything to go by, I would be completely unsurprised to find that some canny TDC councillors have had the foresight to buy some land (that would then need to be compulsorily purchased) slap-bang where the station is proposed. Stay tuned.

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New station 'would help airport lift off'

A proposed Thanet Parkway station would give a fantastic boost to Manston airport but the terminal would still grow without it, its boss has said. Charles Buchanan, chief executive of Kent International Airport, said rail links between Ramsgate and London were already much better, with high-speed journey times down to 75 minutes. A Parkway station close to the airport would cut this to around 64 minutes, although he would like to see it fall tobelow 60 minutes. But he insisted that the terminal would grow with or without the station.

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TDC and Infratil: "no contact"

Well, well. The Chairman of KIACC (the consultative group for Kent International Airport) has forwarded a number of very good questions from the general public to Richard Samuel at TDC. The gist of it, unsurprisingly, is: what on earth is going on? Have a look at the exchange and see how many of KIACC's questions TDC answered...

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Boris Johnson still bonkers

The highly educated buffoon who inexplicably beat several X-Factor contestants to get a responsible job running one of the greatest cities in the world is still making a public fool of himself. Unaware of where the boundaries of London might actually be, he seems to believe that his personal authority extends to wherever the placenames are written in English, which goes some way towards explaining why he thinks he can build an island in the shipping lanes of the Thames.

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TDC Airport Working Party

Marvellously convenient, and doubtless falling into an empty slot in your diary, the Airport Working Party will be re-convening their hastily cancelled meeting from last year. This will be happening on Thursday 20th January at 10:30am, in the Pugin & Rossetti Rooms, Cecil Street, Margate, Kent. Like I say - handy.

Special guest stars will be Bureau Veritas, the world famous sound consultants whose role in the unfolding drama appears to be that of the rain on Infratil's parade. BV's report, which had to be re-drafted a couple of times before being accepted by TDC, did not go down at all well with our chums on the tarmac at Kent's Irrational Airport. An embarrassing spotlight was focused on the typos in Infratil's proposal that skewed the story in their favour; the need to sound-proof Ramsgate was raised; and some crushing killer blows were landed

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Airport gets new radar system - to prevent mistakes

Manston Airport is to have a new multi-million pound radar system to ensure offshore wind turbines are not mistaken for aircraft. Thales, a global aerospace technology company, is to replace the existing radar and air traffic display system.

The new system is designed to present a clearer picture to air traffic controllers and boost reliability and safety. Rotating wind turbine blades can cause so-called radar clutter that resembles the picture from a moving aircraft. The situation is expected to worsen with the development of wind farms in the Thames Estuary off Thanet, including Thanet Offshore and London Array.

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Thales supplies surveillance radars to Kent airport

Thales has signed a contract with Manston, Kent’s International Airport for the programme management, supply and installation of co-mounted primary surveillance and monopulse mode-S secondary surveillance radars, complete with Eurocat-C1 air traffic control (ATC) system.

Manston currently operates with a legacy, raw video, primary surveillance radar (PSR) and procures a feed of monopulse secondary surveillance radar (MSSR) data - but due to the ongoing development of three large offshore windfarms in the Thames Estuary, the legacy PSR detects returns from the turbines that are displayed as significant areas of clutter.

Thales will deliver its STAR 20002 and co-mounted RSM 970 S3 mode-S MSSR radar equipment, which are solid-state radars that will feed data into the Thales Eurocat-C radar display system. These systems will enter into operation before the end of 2011.

TheEngineer.co.uk

Yet another daft airport plan

The chaos at London airports in the run-up to Christmas has proven that the capital needs a modern hub, according to a group of former aviation industry executives who are attempting to resurrect a plan for an airport at Cliffe, in north Kent. An independent aviation advisory group is urging the government to look again at proposals for a £14bn three-runway, 24-hour-a-day hub airport on the Hoo peninsula.

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Bureau Veritas report examined

TDC's press release said that Infratil's next policy submission would follow on from (and be guided by?) BV's final report. Unless Infratil throw up their hands in horror at the report's recommendations and simply leave town, they'll be delivering a new proposal in the New Year. Possibly before.

In the meantime, here's some of the more encouraging quotes from the final Bureau Veritas report:

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More questions than answers

Dear Mr Samuel and Cllr Bayford,

I would be grateful if you would help me with the following:

Firstly, would you please publish details of the proposed consultation process on the TDC website.

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'Kiss of death' for town

The campaign to stop planes from Manston flying over Herne Bay at night is taking off. A working party is to be formed to see if the flight path can be switched to avoid the bay. City councillor Vince McMahan supports a call for a public meeting when the consultation is restarted.

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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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Buchanan in court, out of order

London City Airport is in court. Local residents and campaigners (Fight The Flights) have attracted national attention to their argument that Newham Council's approval of the tens of thousands of extra flights that Charles Buchanan pushed for was both stupid and wrong.

Our all-seeing and tireless spies have infiltrated the London courts to keep an eye on things on your behalf. As you can imagine, the courts are rather fusty and very proper and conservative (with a small "c") places. Proceedings were grinding along at their customary slow but fine pace when who should make a conspicuous late arrival but our own beloved Charles Buchanan.

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Consultation process

The consultation process was due to start on 1st November, but was halted on 1st November. It seems to be a reasonable assumption that TDC will have decided the exact and detailed format of the consultation. It would be very helpful for everyone to know the format of the consultation process, so that if there are any glaring short-comings, they can be ironed out before the process finally starts.

Does anyone have details of the consultation process?

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Policy on night-time flying needs more detailed review

Clipping: thisiskent

My decision to halt the consultation process with regard to the night-time flying policy application from Manston airport was not taken lightly, as I am aware that many people felt that debate about this sensitive issue was long overdue. This week's column gives me the opportunity to share my thinking on the matter.

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Cargolux fined. Again.

The European Commission has fined 11 airlines almost 800m euros (£690m) for fixing the price of air cargo between 1999 and 2006.  Had the Commission not intervened the "deplorable" cartel "would have continued", said EU Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia.  The illegal cartel had harmed both companies and consumers, he said. British Airways was fined 104m euros, Air France-KLM 340m euros and Cargolux Airlines 79.9m euros.

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Bureau Veritas request

The clever people at Bureau Veritas have peer reviewed BAP's technical noise report that accompanied Infratil's recent application. Even though it's apparently only in draft form, this provided TDC with the courage and ammunition to reject Infratil's bid.

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Plans for night flights on hold

Clipping: thisiskent

A report carried out by an airport research company has raised concerns over possible noise from planes using Manston airport. The study, commissioned by Thanet council in response to an application for regular night flights from Manston, says even with restrictions on night time plane movements and a sound insulation scheme for properties "the predicted number of people exposed to significant night-time noise is not justified by the number of passengers and freight activity that are to benefit from the proposals".

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Manston discussion put back

Clipping: thisiskent

PLANS for public consultation over the Manston airport nightflights application have been put on hold. Thanet council's bosses met with airport owner Infratil on Monday to recommend it comes up with a revised proposal with fewer flights at night. A report by the council's consultants Bureau Veritas, experts in the aviation industry, suggests cutting the number of night flights by a quarter.

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