"At least that is what they said when they became new owners and due to the spend so far and the efforts from the management team, i have no reason to dis-believe them."
The problem with hanging your hat on what Infratil have said is that they have said precious little. There seems to be general agreement that they originally anticipated losing money at Manston for somewhere between two and three years. What capital expenditure was built into this forecast ,we can only guess at. Personally, I can see little sign of major investment at the airport. If they are spending millions it's all behind the scenes.
However, the other side of the balance sheet is a bit easier to talk about. Apart from a few moth-eaten freight flights, they have attracted little new business to the airport. And whilst every new flight is greeted with a fanfare, the cancelled services just slide away without mention. Those who are in the business know only too well that volume is important. Unlike Heathrow, Manston can't rely on a vast post check-in mall to subsidise its operation. The money they make will have to come from landing fees, loading/unloading fees and fuel sales.
If Manston was going to get significantly busier next Summer they'd have to be selling tickets now. People are booking their Summer hols. now, and, if you haven't advertized yet you're missing the boat. My impression is that they've missed the boat for a second Summer. With aggressive competition from Lydd now on the cards for the Summer of 2008, the commercial environment is changing.
All of this leads me to my conclusion that things are NOT going according to plan. Fair enough; they planned to lose money for two or three years. I won't disagree. But I can't believe that they planned to be so unsuccessful in attracting new business. My assumption is that they are losing more money than they expected to. The only way this will turn around is if they attract some volume business. The clock is ticking and, by the end of this Summer they will be two years into the project. Whilst they may well have planned to lose money, they may well re-evaluate the situation in the light of experience.