Just published in
thisismoney.co.uk:
For a glorious moment in 2001 it was a North Korean air base in the Bond movie Die Another Day, starring Pierce Brosnan.
In the Second World War it was home to brave Spitfire pilots and bombed by the Luftwaffe. And during the First World War, Manston near Ramsgate, Kent, was a training centre for Handley Page bombers.
But now the grandly renamed Kent International Airport may be about to take off to new glory.
Its owner, £2bn New Zealand infrastructure company Infratil, which also owns Glasgow's Prestwick Airport, has ambitious plans to turn Manston into a hub and is in talk with airlines such as Ryanair.
Key to the plans is a connection with the new high-speed rail line linking Ramsgate to St Pancras in London in just an hour.
Matt Clarke, chief executive of Kent International Airport, said: 'Thanet District Council has agreed to support a new parkway station next to the highspeed track. This is very good news.'
At present KIA is used by fewer than 10,000 passengers a year, mostly on European charter flights, but within 24 years Clarke wants to see this soar to six million a year as London's big three airports run out of room for expansion.
Err...within 24
years? A very long perspective!
No doubt the high-speed rail link is one the key issues here and the creation of new station would mean an important step forward. "Being in talks with airlines such as Ryanair" gives however no clue about how realistic these prospects are.