Representation by Anthony Colin
- Date submitted
- 7 October 2018
- Submitted by
- Members of the public/businesses
My comments are made as a retired airline pilot of 42 years experience. At the end of my career I actually operated a 747 freighter into Manston.
From the Air Traffic Control perspective, Manston is easy to manage. Arrivals and departures are almost entirely over the sea, minimising overflight noise and delays would be non-existant and there is no interference with any of the other London airports.
The local council realies heavily on the Avia report which leaves many significant factors out. For example it completely avoids consideration of any Brexit effect, which to my mind would be massive. Currently longhaul freight ends up in major European hubs (like Brussels), where it is transhipped onto lorries and trucked under the Channel. Manston could provide a UK destination which would easily take 12 hours off shipping times.
LHR and LGW are not available to freight-only aircraft. Only STN in the South of al.England accepts freighters. These aircraft carry cargo that simply will not fit in the underbelly of passenger planes. There is also the issue of perishable goods. Last time I flew into Manston, I carried 112 tonnes of roses from Nairobi destined for Tesco and collected by refrigerated trucks waiting on the apron at Manston and on their way within an hour of arrival.
The Avia report states that KLM commenced passenger service in 2013 only to pull out in 2014. In fact, they only stopped operations because of the announcement to close the airfield, adding that they looked forward to restarting flights as soon as the airport reopened.
There is no doubt that Manston should be considered as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP). I doubt whether we will see another major runway constructed on a greenfield site anywhere else in the UK in the future. I am concerned that the much discussed third runway at LHR will not be available until the late 2020's and by the time it is ready, there will be pressure for another runway at LGW.
Manston is here now and could be operational (for freight movements) in months, if not weeks.
Communications could easily be enhanced with a link to HS1 (relatively straightforward) and that would provide a fast rail connection to central London thus taking the pressure off the two main London airports while extra runway capacity is still being considered.
The Isle of Thanet suffers from high unemployment and the reopening of the airport can only help to alleviate this.
Fright and passenger operations, flight training (in an uncongested environment), business aircraft operations, aircraft maintenance, Search and Rescue - all these could provide much needed high-quality jobs for the area.
With the reopening of the airport, businesses would be encouraged to move to the area - more jobs and rejuvenation of East Kent.