Deedave,
You proclaim your love of intelligent debate, and then produce a post so far removed from facts and reality as to be preposterous. So, in the interests of the informed argument which you crave, a few points...
Originally Posted by
deedave
So where does an airport like Manston fit in?
Not very well I'm afraid.
Airlines and aiports will need to demontrate that they are self-supporting and necessary, and that there is a realistic demand for their services.
An airport such as STN obviously has that credibility - it is bursting at the seams and needs to expand.
Let us not forget that Stansted was, for many years, a vastly underused airport. It was well planned in that it offered capacity for a predicted growth in air traffic. Manston is currently also vastly underused, but where as you see the "bursting at the seams" of the London airports as an argument against Manston, I see it as an argument for it. The increased use of Manston will become a necessity in years to come.
Originally Posted by
deedave
Manston, on the other hand is wasting a huge amount of private and public money
To my knowledge, only the Eujet failure and the flights to Norfolk Virginia were / are funded by KCC. These are specific airline / operator ventures from the airport, and not subsidies for the airport itself. Your claim is not justified.
Originally Posted by
deedave
The environmental
PR error is compounded by the suggestion that people and freight should travel hundreds of miles by road to reach MSE.
Much of the freight that MSE attracts would otherwise be flown to Ostend, and then driven to the UK. This represents an environmental advantage. Furthermore, for many of the citizens of Kent, driving to Manston is a shorter journey than driving to a London airport.
Originally Posted by
deedave
Imagine a company and a local coucil persuading people to use their cars for extra journeys they were not interested in making - and financing it as well! The media outcry would be colossal, yet this is essentially what goes on at MSE.
As I have demonstrated above, this is untrue
Originally Posted by
deedave
Once LYX gets going (a more credible pax airport), the mixture of over-capacity in this region and bad
PR could be a nightmare, and could have far reaching consequences.
What over-capacity? There is currently only ONE daily flight serving Kent, which has a population of 1,600,000 people, the Lyddair service to Le Touquet. Compared to almost every other region in the country, there is a phenomenal lack of provision for passenger flights leaving Kent. In time, I am sure that MSE will attract the standard Ryanair flights to Dublin / Derry etc. and grow from there, and its capacity will become important. We may see more and more freight flights flying into Manston in order free up slots for passenger traffic elsewhere.
Originally Posted by
deedave
If people are not careful, it could turn out to be aviation's Nemesis.
Jes has already pointed out your interesting use of the word "Nemesis." I believe that rising fuel costs and taxation, increased awareness of the impact on the environment on cheap flights, and, above all, congestion will prove to be aviation's nemeses. Manston can ease the latter of these factors, and could prove to be an important link in the aviation growth we will see in the next ten years.
Rupert