The new owners, who made their millions by founding the Stagecoach transport empire, seem more likely to be more interested in buses than planes.
Thanet North MP Sir Roger Wind has trotted out the same trite statement welcoming the new owners that he's trotted out for the previous two, neither of whom could make a go of the place, viz: 'We now have a company taking over the airport that recognises its potential.'
Talk about flogging a dead duck!
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30 comments:
They paid too much, should have gone to the 99p shop.
...perhaps they are branching out with "Air Buses" now!
http://thanetlab.blogspot.co.uk/2013/10/manston-airport.html
The pollution costs of course will still need to be charged. Let's hope our tax rises to cover it?
There is no pollution. There is no pollution. There is no pollution. There is no pollution. There is no pollution.
Just showing you 11.06 how boring are the repetitive rantings of a one trick pony. Please do get a life outside of knocking Manston.
So, let me get this straight. Infratil has been trying to flog a dead horse (Manston) for the last two years. Initially, they wanted £50million for it but after failing to attract any interest, they sold it for £1.......and the irrational Manstophiles think that this means the airport is set for dramatic success. How irrational can you get?
Until the new owners announce their plans we don't know whether they intend to invest asumsuchas the £120 millions as the Stobart Group has done at Southend Airport or whether they intend to close it down and make the most of the assets they have got for just a pound. They could also be in the business of selling it on to turn a profit. Only time will tell.
7:12, nobody is suggesting Manston is scheduled for instant success just because it has been sold, but simply that an owner who wants it is better than one who does not.
I do not know what its prospects are under the new ownership, but then, neither do you. For the sake of people's jobs I hope it continues whereas you obviously want it closed.
So far it has been used for civilian airport operations for 54 years. True all sorts have been and gone like EUJet and MK Airlines, but elsewhere BOAC, BEA, British Midland, Laker and PanAm, to name but a few, have disappeared without closing any airports.
William. Thank you, oh sage of Thanet. Warren Buffett can rest easy. I think we've found his replacement.
There is no pollution at Manston says Anon 11:17? What nonsense. Why was there supposed to be monitoring of the noise, air and water?
6'26 am, listen mindless one, it was a bit of sarcasm to bring to your attention how tedious saying the same thing over and over can be. There is more air pollution at the Birchington roundabout than at Manston, but you do not keep on about that.
Wasn't the air pollution around Manston three times the EU safe levels when the Gazette did theri monitoring?
Probably because it has a busy main road running along side it. Do you really think a couple of KLM flights a day and the odd cargo one cause more pollution than all that traffic.
The two worst spots in Thanet for air quality remain Birchington and St. Lawrence roundabouts.
The new owners won't be allowed to close it down. Do you really think that £1 was the best offer that Infratil could get? You could easily sell the site for anything up to £100 million if you signalled a willingness to allow mixed development to take place. But, TDC and KCC will not allow that. The dead-heads running the councils have decided that it has to remain as an airport, come hell or high-water.
What's wrong with this is that they don't have to pay for the mistake. It's been going on ever since the airport was privatised and, in that time, I estimate that the airport has lost its many owners over £100 million.
The mistake has been far more expensive for the people of Thanet because, instead of a thriving business park generating thousands of jobs we have had a struggling airfield, employing a handful of part-timers.
I don't object to Stagecoach buying it. I just think that the time had come to allow alternative uses for the site to be brought forward. This wasn't allowed and so we are stuck with another five years of stagnation.
Nice in theory, 5:59, but Thanet already has stacks of business park space, including some at Manston, that nobody is interested in investing in. As ever with you, it is pie in the sky nonsense with the main problems being a lack of skilled labour and too many NIMBYs, thus putting off serious investment in Thanet.
Yes 5.59pm, but Ann surely understands the uk airport scene (unlike infratil - "airport 75 miles from London, its a sure thing").
She would know about the vested interest development land owning KCC and Tdc would have in not allowing the airport to turn into something else, but equally she doesn't seem the type to spend mi££ions on trying to make it work.
How about a £1 punt on getting planning permission for something else? Definitely worth a go and might only cost her the redundancy money of the people working there and some consultancy fees.
See the sincerity agency.com domain may be for sale though I doubt Ann Gloag would cough up a £1 for that. Manston is a far better buy.
Maybe Ann's bought it on behalf of someone else. Who's she friends with?
Maybe Ann's bought it on behalf of someone else. Who's she friends with?
It's a 50p investment for Manston isn't it? A quid for both Manston and Prestwick.
Hardly an investment and more Infratil getting rid quick to try and avoid the fines.
While neither Ann's charity nor Stagecoach have experience of running airports.
And Manston has hardly proved successful as an ex-RAF base, again.
Add in the pollution scandals and Manston will now close quicker than leaving it to KCC and TDC.
Maybe Epps will invest a quid from his pension and buy Manston off Ann and run it as an airport during his twilight years rather than dull postings on every blog?
And jobs? There's only a dozen or so - less than Woolworths when that closed. Buchanan and Clarke included the volunteers at the RAF Museum at one point.
Gale would no doubt put in 50p before he retires and Carter would be keen to cobble together some construction idiocy like the Parkway station again.
Maybe Buchanan will join them again and try and trump up some Whitehall tax-funds.
Jail is the best place for them.
6:33, 6:46 & 6:56 - I see desperation is now creeping into your ranting as you search the deeper reaches of your brain cell for reasons to condemn Manston and any who have supported it.
Where you are so contradictory is in your stance as a green person, worried about pollution and the effects on your fellow man whilst your comments indicate a mind full of bile and hatred of anyone who disagrees with you. In truth your stance is governed by self interest and your desire to stop planes overflying your home.
In this latest debate you have gone from someone who maintained Manston was a dead duck and would never sell, to insisting KCC & TDC would make the new owner keep it as an airport through how we all know how easy it is for developers to get planning consent back to it being about to close again. Which is it? Unfair question really because like the rest of us you just don't know.
Elsewhere you have displayed a total lack of understanding of the buying of a business as a going concern, and the costs involved, the implications of employment law in the transaction and the taxation aspects. You seriously underestimate the numbers of employees which stand at 150, not a handful as you allege.
All in all, yours is a unsubstantiated negative view, but with some evidence of paranoia creeping in as you see your case crumbling. In essence, sir, you are a dimwit.
Never mind "Who is Hamilton", after that last sentence I think we should be asking if William Epps is Mr Pickwick.
No answer to the points raised as ever 1:48, just the usual mindless drivel.
The dimwit is the person/persons who fall for the 150 jobs at the airport line.
Oh no there isn't.
Staff .. many on shifts
Air Traffic Control
Fire Service
Security
Ramp Staff
Fuel Staff
Engineering Staff
Operations Staff
Administration Staff
Customer Service Staff
Management Staff
it all adds up ..
I'm sure it does, but not to 150.
Infratil have always skirted around the issue, and have once in the past presented those jobs, but never the FTE - full time employees number. They could have 1,000 people working there, but if they did an hour job each on a 16 hr working day that's 62.5 FTE.
What's the more valuable stat? The one infratil have never published as its much less impressive than 100, 120, or 150 'jobs'
8.29 your post simply indicates that you know SFA.
Lots of Anons on here today wonder if he is shy it can only be one person. The pollution red herring is around again the anti brigade or maybe it is only one person recycling it again.
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