Originally Posted by
EESDL
So how much does the runway need to be extended to permit the big freighters to come and go?
Is there still the real estate available to extend?
Getting back to the question asked.....just for keyboard sake... it will never happen... Manston needed another 300mtr extension on the western end - it would have meant re-routing the minor road to the industrial estate off of the main roundabout to Monkton - for the width and PCN strength required - it was about 1 million a metre for the job to be done and Wiggins at the time whilst good at rattling the pot in the City - was living in cookoo land in their expectation.
We had done a deal with KLM on the back Pfizer at the time and got an agreement with Sean Coyle from Ryanair to launch routes..... but then the McGoldricks rocked up with the grand plan for the old Debis F100's on a lease by hour proposal and that was it - Oliver Iny was skipping around the city promoting Gatwick mk 2 - at that board meeting in Mayfair to approve of the plan for EUjet - one of us got up mid-pitch and walked out resigning on the spot - making a statement that it was financial suicide and impossible to achieve or deliver as per the expectations of the proposed plan... the rest, as they say, is history!!
Manston could have been:
- A good little regional turboprop airport for a few routes like AMS / EDI / MAN / FRA in the 30-78 seat market
- Max 250,000 pax per annum
- A good little seasonal 738 route for a 16-week single rotation to the Algarve
- A good freight airport for perishable and livestock
- An excellent Biz airport if they had laid a few acres of more concrete and popped up a load of sheds to keep them in - the heli route shuttle to town is very quick and easy from there, and it would have been a damn sight cheaper than any of the London airports.
Ce la vie!