Why Was Manston Airport Closed?

[Hypognosis]

The Boris Island story was featured on BBC today. Well done to Mary Creagh MP for managing to give the bird strike hazard a mention, during her interview. Boris has previously been dismissive about this risk, in the past. He doesn't give a t0ss about the ecological angle and clearly has never set eyes on a flock of estuary-loving waterfowl large enough to down an aircraft.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29026484

I wanted to mention Boris in the question title but the thread from July, which I originally replied to fails to show up in latest posts so I fear there is a word filter in operation ;-)

So, other than the local residents, who wanted Manston closed down rather than expanded and linked to the Chunnel HS rail link?

[boxtops]

You tell me, hypo - as it's only half an hour from here, we loved it. Don't asssume that it was the local residents who wanted it closed down - many of us wanted it to stay, and campaigned for it. For years it was used as a fog relief airport for Gatwick, used for freight, used for relief flights to foreign parts. It's got a huge suitable runway, with a small bit of imagination a rail spur could have nipped into the airport - as it is, it's within spitting distance of the M2 via the Thanet way, and near a mainline railway. No SSRI in the immediate vicinity. Yes, some ancient history in the landscape within a few miles, but otherwise - why indeed? We loved using Manston for holiday flights, it was brilliant.

[mushroom25]

probably because the eastern end of the runway was only a few km from the homes of 40,000 people.

[Mick-the-Miller]

Yes, it would've been perfect - particularly as that part of Kent badly needs rejuvenating - there is/was a huge runway and loads of space for development!

A bit too obvious I suppose.

[boxtops]

That's where it's been for years though, mushroom, while the airport was operational - and not much different from the situation at Gatwick or LHR. Even the Queen lives under the Heathrow flight path.

[Hypognosis]

Thanks for the replies so far.

Here's a link to the previous (Boris Island) thread.

http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/News/Question1350569.html

Are Ramsgate, Broadstairs, Margate, Herne Bay, or Canterbury particularly marginal seats? (slightly tongue in cheek but I genuinely don't know).

[boxtops]

South Thanet is being contested by Nigel Farage next time round :-(

It's a very mixed bag of towns - the Isle of Thanet has some prosperous areas, yet one of the wards is near the bottom of the list of deprivation in the south-east of England. East Kent doesn't have much industry apart from the docks and tourism (particularly since Pfizer left) but a lot of start-ups - a lot of poverty though. Reviving Manston would have brought huge employment opportunities to an area with relatively high unemployment, particularly amongst the youth.

[New Judge]

Much has been made of making Manston London's third airport. Whilst it has a certain charm (especially its Battle of Britain connections) it has a number of constraints which make converting it into an international hub airport problematic.

For a start, it has only one runway and, contrary to the popular myth that it has the longest runway in the UK, it is only a little over 9,000 feet long. (Compare this to Gatwick, at around 10,800 and Heathrow at 12,000). This is long enough for most purposes (Boeing ran test flights of its B787 Dreamliner out of Manston and Airbus did likewise with its huge A380 Airbus) but most international airports have runways longer than this.

The airfield is constrained from expanding in almost any direction without loss of homes and, as has been mentioned, it is less than a mile from Ramsgate. To the south lie the villages of Cliffsend and Minster together with the A299 trunk road. Expansion east and west is equally problematical. Furthermore, a large programme of new roadbuilding has just finished around the area and much of this new infrastructure would have to be demolished if the necessary expansion takes place.

At well over 70 miles from central London it is stretching credibility to describe Manston as a "London" airport. It could (and indeed has) served as a useful additional airport from which some minor services have operated. However there are too many problems involved in developing it into a major hub airport which London sorely needs.

[vulcan42]

The risk of bird strike is a red herring, the reservoirs east of Heathrow have wintering populations of birds. Aircraft fly over them all the time.

[askyourgran]

I've visited Manston Airport to see the museum with it's Battle of Britain connection my thoughts at the time were 'what a nice place it was and how atmospheric'. I had no idea it was operational. It is a bit of a stretch to consider it as a 'London airport' and not large enough I would have thought.

[Canary42]

If waterfowl are such a danger how come Barnes Reservoirs were converted into a Wildfowl reserve ?

[Canary42]

... or was it Barnes sewer works. Whichever it was, the question stands.

[Baldric]

///probably because the eastern end of the runway was only a few km from the homes of 40,000 people.///

The vast majority of those people moved into houses that were built long after Manston became an Airport, I have lived in the area for just on 30 and can assure you that is a fact!

[Baldric]

30 Years ^^^^^

[Baldric]

///In the winter of 1915–1916, early aircraft began to use the open farmlands at Manston as a site for emergency landings. The Admiralty Aerodrome at Manston was opened in response. A training school, originally set up to instruct pilots in the use of the new Handley Page Type O bombers, was soon established. By the close of 1916 there were already two units stationed at Manston: the Operational War Flight Command and the Handley Page Training School///

[Baldric]

Good info here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manston_Airport

[boxtops]

I agree with you, though, how daft it would be to tag Manston as "London" - not quite as daft however, IMO, as tagging tiny Lydd airport on the Romney Marshes as "London Ashford" as it does at the moment.... http://www.lydd-airport.co.uk/

[whiskeryron]

This is a genuine enquiry without prejudice in any direction. Why bother to extend any airport. We are an island & I am privileged to be able to remember the flying boats we used to have which can land & take off pretty well all round our coastline. Surely it is not impossible to build these aircraft with retractable landing gear which would then make them suitable to fly anywhere in the world & also make the UK once again leaders in world aviation.

[237SJ]

Yep bring back flying boats, that`s what I say. Why take 24 hours to get to Australia when you can take 10 days?

[Baldric]

Way to go 237, that's progress for you!

[Hypognosis]

I appear to have unintentionally misdirected people with regard to what I was about by using the Boris story as my starting point. I acknowledge that it is a stretch - high-speed rail links notwithstanding - to bring Manston into the London airport discussion.

Still, as a standalone question, why was it closed? Ryanair are famous for landing people 50+ miles away from where they want to be plus it was relieving Heathrow of a few cargo flights, which often use the cheapest takeoff/landing slots which are at unsocial hours of the night.

If the answer is that running costs escalated to the point it was uneconomic to run, I can accept that but why was this so sudden - everything was fine up to a few years ago?

It's about 28 miles from the Isle of Grain site which is close enough to cause future flight path conflicts and put it in direct competition with the new hub, a battle it would certainly lose. So, to me, it does begin to look like a pre-emptive shut-down by the owners, on the assumption that the IoG project is a done deal!