10,000 movements per year is not 10,000 aircraft, it is 5,000 aircraft, each movement being an arrival or departure, to arrive and depart would be two movements, milking the figures perhaps!
So 5,000 aircraft per year would be 13.7 aircraft per day, allowing for a night curfew around one aircraft every 74 minutes, an arrival or departure every 37 minutes, courier movements excluded is there any UK airport that has this volume of dedicated freighter movements?
And it remains that Manston's 2,748m runway simply isn't long enough for heavy freighters which, reading back, there appears to be a misconception regarding, a lack of knowledge of runway and aircraft performance perhaps.
An example of this is the TK6491 crash in Bishkek, that aircraft wasn't routing thru FRU for a traffic stop, it was merely a refuelling stop whilst en-route HKG/IST. Block time of 11hr 20min HKG/IST should be a walk in the park for a B747-400 but not when loaded up to max payload, as so many freighters regularly are, and between max payload and MTOW off HKG's 3,800m runway they simply couldn't get enough fuel on to route direct HKG/IST.
And doubters please, by all means, work out the max payload and then fuel up to MTOW off Manston's 2,748m runway, calculate the total fuel on board and recognise just how far such a B747-400F could get before it needs to stop for fuel again.
I'm ex RAF and I grew up on the Kent/Surrey border so I would like to see Manston survive but to suggest that an airfield way out on a peninsula like it is and with less than desirable road connections is going to attract so many dedicated freighter movements, heavy movements excluded, every 37 minutes has to be living in cloud cuckoo land.
Some airports that struggle for catchment make money from on-site maintenance facilities, OK deals are done to attract the maintenance facility but thereafter revenue is generated from landing & navigation charges, aircraft parking, refuelling, such maintenance facilities attract aircraft storage revenue, NWI, EXT, CWL, QLA to name a few, just check on GE the number of Saabs parked up at Orebro, Sweden because of an on site maintenance facility, sure Manston can make SOME revenue from freight but not enough to make the site viable, someone should be out there trying to attract a maintenance facility, some general aviation etc, after all Kent is a beautiful place to live and to visit.
Last edited by OC37; 19th Jul 2020 at 07:01.