Nobody wants the airport, they all want the land its sat on
To anyone, other than a doctor it seems, that appears to be oh do true, indeed so obvious.
Just take a few other ex military airfields around, who would ever have imagined Lasham to remain successful after all these years, just look at what they've achieved at Kemble, the owners of Kemble have tried for something similar at Llanbedr but alas, Dunsfold have achieved what seems to be a profitable business, Church Fenton is trying to make a go of things and none of these, well perhaps Kemble being in a particularly beautiful part of the country, have location in their favour.
They're making their money from flying club activities, from aircraft recycling, aircraft parking/storage, maintenance, film shoots etc. and not one of them from cargo movements.
This Dixon character, as the other doc posted, has forecast freight and passenger movements up to some 25 years in advance but she hasn't forecast any general aviation movements or any aircraft parking/storage revenue whilst she simply doesn't realise that Manston's runway isn't long enough for heavy freighters.
She can waffle away at Cranfield as much as she likes, she can be a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society, I'm sure these look great on her CV, but how many general aviation owners/pilots did she talk with, did she enquire of any of the big boys regarding developing an out of town maintenance facility at Manson as CWL did with BA, how many heavy freighter loadsheets has she prepared, does she know the first damn thing about runway performance etc. etc. etc?
Ex military airfields without location in their favour can make for a viable business but they need to multi-task because it's very hard to make money in aviation.
But then these people aren't interested in making money in aviation ... They just want the real estate!