Strange that larger cargo aircraft seem to shun the place
Cargo aircraft, besides the courier stuff, tend to take off, and indeed land, at maximum payload, not merely a case of a bum on a seat and perhaps hand baggage and/or a 15kg suitcase, cargo aircraft they fill from floor to ceiling, often containerised or palletised, and operating a maximum weights they need a longer runway than passenger aircraft operations.
A slight thread drift of Manston becoming the south-east's answer to it's air freight problems, Manston has a mere 9,016ft runway, if that is all that is required for cargo operations then why did LUX extend their runway to 13,123ft for CargoLux B747F operations?
In a previous life I flight planned a DC8-62F PIK/BGR, I needed to plan for maximum, rather than standard, flap settings just to get the thing off the ground and PIK has a 9,797ft runway.
So if the freighters are shunning 'the place' there is a very good reason for it ... runway length!