Oh no of course it's not an impossibility, long into the future who knows but that could be said about so many of the UK's smaller regional airports, but for the foreseeable future yes it's pretty impossible.
so you are comparing Manston with Norwich.
Okay so Norwich has KLM Cityhopper yes but compared to Manston it is a whole differen't operation.
For 2013 the Manston route carried 35,854 now it did have less frequency than Norwich does and also it only started in April 2013 but.......
Norwich handled 132,056 passengers on that route, this was more for the year than; Belfast International 104,575, Cardiff 116,701, DTV 98,305, East Midlands 35,034, Exeter 35,356, Humberside 113,679, Southampton 103,524.
Now I know KLM don't operate at all of those airports, but at Cardiff, DTV, and Humberside they do, but Norwich was much higher, so Norwich remains an important base along with their maintenance and engineering which is strategically brilliant for KLM due to it's proximity of Amsterdam.
Flybe in fact only have their summer flight to Jersey, and now Loganair under the Flybe brand fly to Manchester and Edinburgh 3 times daily, choosing to base 3 aircraft and relocating crew and staff to the airport.
Norwich has a massive Helicopter operation compared to what Manston had serving the gas platforms and oil industry.
Norwich's Aberdeen Route saw 62,000 plus passengers a lot linked to the gas industry
Plus Holiday charter is growing year on year at the moment,
But the major thing to mention is Air Livery, currently planned to begin constructing a brand new 5 bay hangar painting facility, (north east section of the airport) at the 3rd quater of this year to bring all small to medium aircraft to be painted at Norwich, increasing movements by 10%.
now would they really be investing and building something like that if the airport had any sign of closing in the next few years..... no
The new owners also own Exeter and Coventry, have they been closed for housing nope in fact they reopened Coventry after it was shut previously.
But the major fact is this
Norwich's Total Aircraft movements 2013 = 40,702 (that was 20,000 more than Southend I believe)
Manston Total Aircraft movements 2013 = JUST 17,504
Norwich's Total Passenger Traffic 2013 = 463,401
Manston Total Passenger Traffic 2013 = 40,391
So from this we can see that Norwich is nothing like Manston was and im sure many people would agree with that.
So will it close in the foreseeable future NO
Into the Distant Future, who really can say!
