Representation by Col Longmore
- Date submitted
- 10 September 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
Fuel tanker movements 5th September 2018
Manston Airport does not have hydrant fuelling system and is not connected to the CLH Pipeline System (aka United Kingdom Oil Pipeline -UKOP) and therefore does not have a secure supply of Jet A-1 fuel, the standard fuel for commercial aircraft. Furthermore the installation of such a system is way beyond the means of any normal business and would require not only the cooperation of the government but also a major investment of taxpayer money.
Under normal circumstances, e.g. a small to medium size airport with limited commercial activity, this could be viewed as a relatively unimportant issue. And indeed in the past Manston airport activities were on such a scale as to be easily dealt with by road tankers supplying the airport's daily needs.
RSP are proposing to move the fuel farm which is currently on the Northern Grass to the current Jentex site on Canterbury West Road in Cliffsend. It will be right at the edge of a built-up area. This move will require permission from the Environment Agency,
However with the new plans submitted by Riveroak Strategic Partnership (RSP) for the total redevelopment of the airport (RSP stating that they could handle 83,000 flight movements per annum, with a submitted starting number of 17,000 flight movements per annum) the safe supply of aviation fuel to the airport is now an important issue for the community at large.
Flights movements are one in and one out. So one would have 8550 refuellings for 17,100 movements / 5,000 refuellings for 10,000 movements. RSP are hedge their bets here sometimes referring to 17,100 and sometimes 10,000.
A large commercial road tanker can carry, depending on the tanker size, between 20,800 and 43,900 litres of aviation fuel. A small capacity freight aircraft like the Boeing 737 class of aircraft, the most popular form of freight aircraft in use today requires 26,020 litres to fill its tanks (which gives the aircraft a maximum range of 3,060 miles with a burn rate of 2,839 litres per hour). As a high percentage of the freight landing at the airport will be long distant, Manston will be an important refuelling stop.
Taking the lowest RSP figures into account (17,000 flight movements per annum, which is equal to approximately 46 flights every 24 hours) this would require the delivery by road of minimum of 600,000 litres of fuel every day supplying 737 type freight aircraft. These figures would greatly increase depending on the size of aircraft employed. Other freight aircraft like the Boeing 747 requires 183,000 litres. The Boeing 767-300 requires 90,770 litres, the Airbus A330-300 requires 97,000 litres. As these type of aircraft most certainly will be using Manston the fuel delivery figure could reasonably rise to 2,000,000 litres per day, necessitating between 50 and 60 road tanker deliveries every 24 hours.
Should RSP increase their capacity to anything like the 83,000 flight movements they claim they could handle, this would entail 113 aircraft landing and taking off per day. At a conservative estimate this would require the delivery by road of 600 to 750 million plus litres of high octane aviation fuel in the course of a year. Such traffic movements in a heavily built up and restricted road access area like Thanet would pose a serious danger to the local population and the environment as a whole.