News that Chas 'n' Dave Margate International Airport's cherubic chief executive Matt Clarke is quitting must surely put a spanner in the works for the landing strip's expansion plans. Word is that the place is also without a business development manager these days too.Rather than appoint a replacement for the Kiwi Kid, the airport's owners Infratil have asked Tom Wilson to act as boss. Mr Wilson is described as 'Chief Executive of Infratil Airports Europe' which means, after the sale of Lubeck in Germany last year, just Prestwick and Manston.
Masterplan Matt is apparently back off to his homeland to take up another position at Infratil, which used the Lubeck dosh to buy Shell's forecourt business in NZ. Let's hope he'll be doing more than pumping gas and selling meat pies. Anyway, I'm sure the No Night Flights people will have a whip round to give him a good send-off!
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17 comments:
I doubt if many people will shed tears in Thanet at this news!
Prestwicks Chief Exec left in November and has not been replaced.
Large companies don't let people leave important positions without finding a replacement first, especially as both are still with Infratil.
Tom Wilson oversaw the sale of Lubeck.
Draw your own conclusions.
Good riddance!
Bryan, why good riddance? Has he personally annoyed you somehow, or are you hoping his departure will have a detrimental effect on the airport?
Yes, go easy on the lad. He was only following orders.
Now that he's gone, let's hope Infratil start thinking about a real, sustainable and environmentally friendly use for the place that doesn't involve flying 747s over Ramsgate all day and night. Anyone for a wind farm?
8:34 AM
yes they do
Well isnt that good news.
I wish him well. But that must be good news for all those who want the airport to close.
4.04..Yes and for those that would like to see it put to better use.
Better use meaning anything that isn't an airport.
Good luck to the chap I say. Let's just hope Manston doesn't end up as thousands of houses and shops - or industrial units - that nobody can support.
7-18 = Or stay as a run down airport that nobody can support, as demonstrated over the last decade.!!!
Bring on the tumbleweed.
The key question here is about planning. TDC has placed Manston at the centre of its development plan. Councillors ignored advice, given during the consultation phase, to include a back-up plan and the inspectors who oversaw the public inquiry also ignored the need for a plan B. Consequently, there is no contingency plan in the event that the airport fails. This is gross negligence. The airport has been limping along for many years and it was entirely predicatable that it might fail. TDC should have had a contingency plan rather than putting all of their eggs in a frail basket.
A wind farm... is this some form of joke? You lot moan like buggery about some tarmac, concrete and the chance in a million of a fuel spill leaking into our water table and now you're suggesting they dig hundreds of feet down into it to put up big windmills? Jeez, no wonder people think you're all a bunch of loonies!
I wish Matt and his family all the very best as they prepare to return home.
As the manager at KIA he has not had an easy ride and perhaps we should remember his unfailing courtesy and charm; his openess when engaged in debate and easy tolerance and sense of humour in spite of some pretty strong flak fired in his direction. He has managed to represent his company in an exemplary way and we should acknowledge that.
He will be a difficult act to follow and I suspect his 'replacement' will have other priorities.
09:16, No its some 50 years of consistent failures at Manston by civilian operators. Just how much other companies have financially lost along with the CAA!!! lets have these figures and then say its a good thing.
The entire planning management at TDC and KCC are to say the least inadequate and should go.
As for the KIA management read today's Your Thanet.
If this place fails as an airport I imagine it will either be turned over to housing or an industrial park but I doubt it would ever revert to a 'natural' or agricultural site.
Suds'll do it!!!
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