MK Hits Turbulence Again

With my well-earned weekend break only interrupted by a knackered old jumbo skimming the roof at 11.30 last night, I'm f****ing fit and will be hitting the campaign snail trail again this week!

And speaking of Chas 'n' Dave Margate International Airport, the good news is that there'll be fewer cargo crates disturbing my beauty sleep in future. MK Airlines looks like it's thrown in the towel again, after weeks of rumours that it couldn't pay its staff and pilots. MK, famous for its Canadian and Nigerian crashes, first went into administration in 2008. Now Aircargo News reports that it has suspended all flights following its failure to secure sufficient funding to continue operations. Hurrah!

Click here to read more on Aircargo News website

I Love The Smell Of Jet Fuel In The Morning

This sign has recently appeared on the site of Ramsgate's Royal Sands development (Pleasurama in old money). Amongst other things it promises potential buyers 'the opportunity to wake up in the morning to the sounds of waves lapping on the beach and the smell of the freshest sea air'.

Hmm. More like 'the opportunity to be woken up in the middle of the night by the roar of knackered old jumbos and the smell of nitrous oxide and aviation fuel', methinks! And as for 'waves lapping on the beach' it could be more like 'waves lapping through the ground floor of your apartment block' if the Environment Agency is to be believed!

Speaking of knackered old jumbos, I see there was a veritable flight of the phoenix this afternoon as our old friends MK Airlines made an unwelcome return to the Millionaires' Playground. If you recall, MK, famous for their Canada and Nigeria crashes, went tits up last month only to be refinanced by a mystery investor so that they could return and blight our lovely Victorian seaside town all over again. Who knows, if car-sized chunks can fly off even Qantas's lovely, modern 747s, perhaps the occupiers of Royal Sands might one day have the opportunity to gaze out to sea from their own private balcony on a scene not dissimilar to this:

Flight Of The Phoenix

Yikes! I'm getting unconfirmed reports that well-known Canada and Nigeria-crashers MK Airlines, who have spent most of the last year blighting our lovely seaside town with their endless, oozalum training flights and 1am cargo cruises into RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport, have, like a kind of Frankenstein's monster with aluminium wings, been re-animated!

It was only just over a week ago that they announced they'd gone tits up, but now a British investor has apparently pumped several million (volts?) through them and they've jerked back into life. Of course, we heard that was happening with exclusive, business class airline Silverjet a while back, and they still ended up cashing in their chips. Still, who knows, there could be life in the old corpse yet. As a quick stroll around Westgate often proves!

'Are you seriously telling me that your only experience
is flying around Thanet in a circle every eight minutes?'

'Ja Kapitan, but ze principle is ze same!'

Another One Bites The Dust

Hurrah! Here's something you won't be seeing over the Millionaires' Playground again. Well-known Canada and Nigeria-crashers MK Airlines, who have spent most of the last year blighting our lovely seaside town with their endless, oozalum training flights and 1am cargo cruises, have gone tits up! They're apparently parked up in Oostende (Ostend in old money) awaiting the receivers as we speak. What with them and those other blighters, Oasis Hong Kong Airlines, going to that great airport in the, um, sky it looks like we've finally seen the last of knackered old jumbos blasting the tiles off our splendid Victorian roofs every 8 minutes!

Given worldwide carbon footprint anxiety, new aviation taxes, airlines dropping like an MK 747 and the price of fuel going up faster than a porn star's whatsit, you have to ask whether RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport can hold out much longer. The development of Summit Aviation's maintenance centre up there has already stalled. Surely it can't be long before the whole place crashes and burns?

As regular readers will recall, I'm well known for my infallible crystal ball, and my prediction is we'll see Infartil, the airport's owners, pull out at some point in the next 6-12 months. Which leaves the question of what we do with Manston. Wind farm? Housing estate? If Thanet had a council with any vision, they'd be lobbying Tussauds or Disney as we speak to locate a fabulous theme park on the site. What with that, our beautiful sandy beaches, and our proximity to London, we'd have it made! I fear though that, as we in fact have a council with about as much vision as my glass eye, what we'll get is an even bigger, water-polluting Chinese industrial estate!

Click here for MK announcement on NASDAQ
Click here for MK obituary in Wikipedia
Click here for list of all 33 35 airlines that have gone bust this year

It's Not Just The Engines That Whine

Joystick jockey Clifford has emailed me:

Maybe you should have a link on your articles regarding MK Airlines that show the official air accident investigation report as well as a one sided, biased report by a journalist. Get your facts straight first.

Deary me, Clifford. I'm afraid you must have gotten me muddled up with someone who gives a sh*t!

Click here to read about MK's appalling safety record in The Times

What Goes Around Comes Around. Again. And Again And Again And Again And Again...

Well it didn't take long for Infratil to find a replacement for Oasis, did it? Now we have those well-known Canada-crashers MK blasting our town with their 400 tonne lump of flying crap every eight minutes for hours on end.

Word is that Ostend Council are closing their airport, where MK are usually based. (Sensible chaps, the Belgians.) And that Infratil have just signed a contract to ship heavy mining equipment in huge Illyushin transporters to South Africa. So we can expect to see more of this folly in the future.

There's also talk that the next meeting of the RAF London Kent Ramsgate Manston International Airport Consultative Committee might be open to members of the public. Should that be the case, and should airport boss Matt Clarke actually deign to turn up this time, I shall certainly be up on my feet in protest. Does anyone know where I can hire a very loud megaphone?

Click here to read about MK's appalling safety record in The Times