aeroground

Be interesting to see how they manage to handle the few pax flights with limited staff, or if hiring how they will manage to comply with all legislation on security etc or perhaps they still as flexible, good luck anyhow

Herne Bay

Ryanair web site quote
Two new bases which are due to be announced this summer.
Is one of these MSE

furmanek

Could you provide a link to this announcement. There does not appear to be anything obvious on Ryanair's web site

thanks

Taildragger

At the risk of being told (Again) that I am a naysayer, NOTHING has changed. The airport is still in the same wrong place at the end of the road, and the new operators have only attracted a once per week service to two destinations, during the Summer season. The future for MSE lies in developing the Cargo (And Maintenance) business, (Some success there then) but it geographically is in quite the wrong place to do any significant Pax work other than the local Summer catchment business. Some of you beleive that wishing it were otherwise need, ahem, their bumps felt. If any of you care to put significant money on it, I would be happy to take your cash. When Infratil took over, I was impressed by their grasp of the size and scope of the business. I still think that. Unless they thought up the Manston - Rhode Island wheeze.
There seems to be some out there who think that passing Stanstead, Luton, Heathrow and Gatwick to fight their way to Manston will work. The catchment area East of Maidstone and all of Thanet does not make a market of any size other than the Palma on a Saturday that used to be.

Herne Bay

You need to look at the ryanair web site pages for jobs for pliots and air crew.
I used to live in Tonbridge driving to to gatwick took me over an hour at busy times and parking long term you had to give your self at least a further hour, Heathrow round the M25 with parking and two hour check in I had to leave home 6 hours before flight, and as for Stanstead I remember 3 hours on the M11 and the Dartford Crossing.
To drive to manston from south london takes less than an hour in far less traffic, you park outside the airport.
I used Eujet a few time, and the plane was full to Spain, however to other times I was one of only 5 pax

Desk Driver

There are some that say it would be cheaper for Infatril if FR did'nt come to MSE, but I'm sure they will tie it in with the PIK deal.

I totally agree with Taildragger that MSE is in the wrong place for Pax.
Until the M2 & M20 pass right outside.

I tried to do some business with Planestation last year and at the time it did seem to be EUJET calling the shots, while every now & then the fences were moved in as more & more land got sold

snarfel

Is there somebody who can tell me why Infratil cannot get or doesn't want to get MK Airlines back at MSE? Or is Infratil waiting until MK obtains its UK AOC and the opportunity to enter the US airspace again?

Herne Bay

I live at Herne Bay and a MK 747 pass's over my house at about 2000 ft at least 3 times a week

Twitcher

MK will not get a UK CAA AOC. It will cost them too much in maintanance to get the aircraft up to the standard of a G- registration. None of their engineers are UK CAA licensed either, they all use the FAA A & C which isn't sufficient. It will cost too much in re-quailifying the engineers.

kellyoldsmunt

if MK were flying over my house, i think i would move!!!!
so we get the "i told you so" and " the airport is in the wrong location" brigade comming out for an airing. it is fact that by the time eujet went tits up most routes were nearly full capacity, it failed due to running before walking and too many overpaid staff on the books, those who were there know

tilewood

Kellyoldsmunt:

If most of EuJet's flights were operating at near capacity , and the only reason for it's economic failure were the 'highly paid staff' why is it
that Ryanair and Easyjet aren't beating a path to Kent International's door?

I have a feeling those who were there did not know, and that was the
problem. The whole EuJet enterprise was like watching a slow motion tram
smash. Everyone else in the industry knew exactly what would happen.

Wrong aircraft, wrong business plan, wrong airport. Like so many other
professionals have stated since the 1960's, Manston has no catchment area,
no surface links, and therefore no real future as a scheduled service airport.

Perhaps one day when a motorway and rail link are built, but certainly not now.

Jes

"If most of EUJet's flights were operating at near capacity, and the only reason for its failure were the 'highly paid staff', why is it that Ryanair and easyJet aren't beating a path to Kent International's door?"
How do we know that they're not? Infratil are very well in with Ryanair, but my information is that they don't want to become too dependent on them. Both of these airlines have a long lead-in for allocating aircraft, particularly when deliveries have been interrupted.
"Everyone else in the industry knew exactly what would happen. Wrong aircraft, wrong business plan, wrong airport. Like so many other professionals have stated since the 1960s, Manston has no catchment area, no surface links, and therefore no real future as a scheduled service airport."
Who are these experts? If they have been stating this since the 60s they would have started at the time that Manston had a lot of passenger traffic.
"Perhaps one day when a motorway and rail link are built, but certainly not now." Have you heard of the M2/A299 connection? Have you heard of the CTRL being used for domestic high-speed services from 2009?
Manston is not a London airport; it's Kent's regional international airport. EUJ did pick up a lot of custom from SE London, but most of the traffic was from Kent and Sussex.

tilewood

Jes;

The pax traffic Manston had in the 60's was cheap IT work, coached in
and out by the likes of Invicta. Those days have long gone, and airlines
and passengers have different requirements.

Manston has what the South East is desperately in need of, a long
runway. But something is sadly lacking otherwise it would have been
swamped by passenger airlines long ago. And what it lacks is a catchment area. It's in the wrong place.

No catchment area, no good surface links and infrastructure = no customers.

It's not rocket science, and all the wishful thinking won't make it so.

Try reading the 'The Future of Air Transport' The Government's White Paper
for air transport published in 2003 and you will see exactly what constrains
any major development at Manston.

Twitcher

tilewood
Pro airport people, unlike yourself, do have realistic hopes. We don't expect MSE to be anything like Stansted. It is a regional airport, from which some routes proved themselves with Eujet. Had Eujet had the chance to keep going they would now be using ATRs on the shorter, less popular routes. There is a catchment area to sustain that, though agreed not to as many routes as Eujet tried.
The roads are not that bad. People will use MSE because it is less hassle to get to and use. I think it will eventually be a successful passenger airport on a limited scale. It is not top priority for Infratil in the short term it seems.

thayrd

Is s2adt still parked at manston?

EGMH

Yes, but reg is now N801KH.

thayrd

thank you, has it been sold and if so to whom? or has it merely reverted to one of it's numerous previous registration details

Morbid

Still available according to the Langdon website.... Not suprised really, maint wise its a horror story.

frostbite

I can tell you that "unlike yourself" is way off!

'Realistic' would be more appropriate.

Edgar Jessop

You couldn't be more wrong. It will take a litle time but I can see the corporate will to do it and it will happen.

As to whether this will bring MK back to Manston, I doubt it. As I understand it increased costs at MSE prompted them to move out in the first place and they are now happily established with ops in Ostend and maintenance at Filton. Why should they want to move back?