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Community website for all things Herne Bay (Kent, UK). Covers: The Downs, Herne Bay Museum, Herne Bay Historical Records Society, Herne Bay Pier Trust, Herne Bay in Bloom, East Cliff Neighbourhood Panel, No Night Flights, Manston Airport, Save Hillborough, Kitewood, WEA, Local Plan and much, much more...

No Night Flights

Filtering by Tag: Forecast

Manston: "Airports could go out of business"

HBM

Some regional airports could go out of business if the Government fails to recognise their important role in easing the nation’s capacity crisis. That's the warning from Manston Airport chief executive Charles Buchanan.

He argues that direct and immediate action is needed to resolve the short and long-term airport capacity shortages at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted where new runways have been ruled out indefinitely. In Manston's submission to a consultation on aviation policy, he urges the Government to look to existing regional airports to buy time for longer term plans to be explored.

"Realistically no new runway will be built in the South East for at least 10 years, probably 15 years, but regional airports can deliver capacity now. The downturn in the economy has seen a number of the smaller regional airports, including some in the South East, operate at a significant financial loss, with the real possibility that it will only be a matter of time before the industry starts to see the closure of some of these currently loss-making airports. Once closed, they will probably be lost forever and not replaced."

Mr Buchanan also wants to see different rates of Air Passenger Duty (APD) applying at congested airports to persuade airlines to operate out of smaller ones like Manston.

Meanwhile, the British Chambers of Commerce has called on the Government to develop an aviation policy that supports business growth and job creation. It also wants ministers to scrap proposed APD increases. Jo James, chief executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, said:

"In Kent we have a particular interest in aviation policy owing to the controversial question of the expansion of airport facilities within the county. If companies are to make the most of the opportunities offered by international trade, it is essential that a cohesive aviation policy is developed, and definitive decisions reached on future developments."

KentOnline 2nd Nov 2011


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Number-crunching

HBM

Charles Buchanan (CEO, Manston Airport) from the night flights proposal:

Today some 110 staff are employed by the airport, with approximately a further 40 employed in servicing the operation of the airport. The airport currently generates £4.5m GVA (Gross Added Value) of which some £3.8m is within the Thanet economy ... development in line with the published Master Plan would (by 2018) support direct employment of over 2,000 jobs with a further 1,000 indirect and induced jobs in the wider economy. This level of employment would generate £65m GVA.

Sandra Matthews-Marsh (CEO, Visit Kent) responding to RGF funding

Tourism in East Kent contributes more than £835 million to the local economy and supports almost 18,000 jobs.


Now consider the effect that the proposed night flight timetable will have on tourism in East Kent.


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"Night flights would boost business in Thanet" says airport

HBM

Up to eight flights a night could take off and land at Kent International Airport, according to plans submitted to Thanet District Council. Bosses at the airport have submitted their long-awaited night-time flight policy, and campaigners now have 12 weeks to have their say on the proposals.

Managers say allowing flights between 11pm and 7am would attract more business to the area. They are banned under the airport's current planning agreement with the council.

The submission proposes that by 2018, there will be as many as 659 night-time flights every year between 11.30pm and 6am – an average of 1.8 planes a night. But the nightly total is increased by a proposed average of 3.2 flights a night between 11pm and 11.30pm, and the same number between 6am and 7am. Chief executive Charles Buchanan said:

"For the airport to be commercially viable in the longer term, and deliver for Kent what other airports have done for their regions, it is vital that we are allowed to compete in terms of the operating hours."

The airport proposes banning only the noisiest planes at night. Council leader Councillor Bob Bayford, said:

"The council is committed to ensuring that local people have plenty of opportunity to comment on these proposals.  We know this is a hugely important issue, especially for those living under the flight path. Before this process begins we will be seeking an independent assessment of Infratil's supporting reports, and will publish the findings. I'd like to encourage everyone with a view to ensure they take the time to participate".

Mr Buchanan said allowing night flights could provide 2,000 jobs at the airport by 2018 and a further 1,000 jobs around Thanet. The airport says it currently employs 110 people and that a further 40 people are employed to assist the operation of the airport. He said binning the policy would "severely hinder" the airport's ability to attract passenger and freight airlines and would cost the Thanet economy £30m a year and 1,450 jobs.

Thanet Gazette 28th Oct 2011


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Manston makes night-time submission

HBM

A Kent airport has resubmitted its proposals for night flights. Manston airport, near Ramsgate, has asked Thanet Council for permission to run at least six flights between 11pm and 7am. Bosses said the plans would create around 3,000 jobs by 2018 and are vital for the long-term future of the company. Charles Buchanan, Chief Executive at Manston, commented:

"For the airport to be commercially viable in the longer term and deliver for Kent what other airports have done for their regions, it is vital that we are allowed to compete in terms of the operating hours."

The submission also included a Night Noise Assessment Report after plans met with objections from locals, councillors and MPs, concerned about the noise any additional flights would make. Mr Buchanan added:

"Rejecting the submission by prohibiting all commercial traffic betweem 11am and 7pm would severly hinder the aiport's ability to attract passenger and freight airlines. It would cost the Thanet economy an estimated £30m per year and some 1,450 jobs at a time when the area needs them more than ever. It could even threaten the continuation of the airport as a viable business."

The plans will go out to public consultation after the council has had their own independent assessment of the proposals carried out. Leader of Thanet Council, Cllr. Bob Bayford, said:

"The council is committed to ensuring that local people have plenty of opportunity to comment on these proposals. We know this is a hugely important issue, especially for those living under the flight path, so will be providing a minimum consultation period of 12 weeks for people to have their say. I’d like to encourage everyone with a view to ensure they take the time to participate."

KentOnline 28th Oct 2011


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Plans for Manston Airport night flights

HBM

A Kent airport is asking for permission to operate night flights. Manston Airport wants Thanet District Council to allow an average of eight take-offs or landings per night. The move would allow the operation to attract new airlines and a study suggested it could create more than 3,000 jobs.

But opponents fear it could pave the way for 24-hour arrivals and departures. The proposal is for three flights between 23:00 and 23:30, two flights between 23:30 and 06:00 and three between 06:00 and 07:00. Charles Buchanan, from Manston Airport, said:

"It is vital to have a limited amount [of night flights], in a managed way, with the consent of the community around us. What we need is to be able to attract airlines here. If we can't operate the hours that other airports can operate, then those airlines will choose to operate elsewhere."

Campaigners have claimed the move would allow 24-hour arrivals and departures. The online petition said:

"The noise from any flights in the eight hours between 11pm and 7am is far more intrusive and disruptive than at any other time of day. Night flights would reduce the quality of life for everyone within earshot of the flight path."

BBC 28th Oct 2011


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Wouldn't it be a huge boost for the local tourist industry if Manston could actually develop a viable passenger business?

HBM

The research says that it wouldn’t. The UK exports tourists rather than importing them - more Brits fly abroad for their holidays than foreigners come here.

The UK currently runs a “tourism deficit” of £19 billion a year and about £17 billion of that flies out of the UK every year with people flying abroad on holiday. This aviation tourism deficit is costing the UK about 900,000 jobs a year because people spend their money abroad instead of here.

On Infratil’s own numbers, this year twice as many local people flew from Manston to spend their money in Edinburgh than the number of people who flew from Scotland to spend their money here. For every inbound holidaymaker or business person to Thanet, we lose two to Edinburgh.

Manston is leaching money from the local economy.

Worse still, night flights over Thanet and Canterbury will cost us tourism-based jobs – that’s real jobs that exist today. People don’t choose go on holiday somewhere where they will have noisy 747s flying over their B&B all night. The Council’s independent experts have already said, a 747 taking off at night over Ramsgate will create a noise footprint that can be heard by 30,903 people. That wipes out Ramsgate as an attractive tourist destination.

Thanet has over 5,000 tourism jobs and tourism grew 10% here in the three years to 2009. Every 10% increase creates 500 more jobs – that’s five times as many jobs as Manston has created in the last eleven years. We should be protecting and growing our existing tourism business, not exporting tourist expenditure abroad and decimating the ability of Ramsgate to continue to develop as a successful tourist destination.


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What about the hundreds of indirect jobs the airport will create?

HBM

Indirect employment is just a way of double-counting people who are already employed in other industries. If every industry counted its indirect employment the way airports do, the number of people employed in British industry would far exceed the total UK population!

For example, indirect employment for airports includes workers who produce the goods sold in airport shops, for example, the Scottish distillery workers who produce the whisky sold in duty-free shops. It includes the bakers who bake the bread for the airline pilots’ sandwiches. It even includes the bakers who bake the bread for the distillery workers’ sandwiches!

It includes the workers on oil rigs producing fuel for aviation. When an oil rig worker takes a holiday in Cornwall, a proportion of the hotel staff are counted as part of indirect employment for airports. Honest.

Even if you believe in this fantasy of indirect jobs, far fewer are created than airports would have you believe.

Consultants for the Department for Transport looked at the number of local indirect jobs that aviation lobbyists claim have been created for each direct airport job. The average was 0.3 indirect jobs created for each proper direct job. Stansted itself quotes this number for its own indirect employment creation. Bizarrely, Infratil says that it will create 0.5 indirect jobs for every direct job.


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Is it true that every 1 million passengers creates 1,000 jobs?

HBM

Far from it. You’ve only got to look at airports that have the kind of passenger business that Manston hopes for to see the truth:

Bristol – 439 jobs per million passengers.

Bournemouth – 408 jobs per million passengers now, and expected to fall to 247 by 2015

Prestwick (another Infratil airport) – 248 jobs per million passengers, and that was before the last two rounds of redundancies.

The rise of the low cost, no-frills airlines and fiercer competition mean that regional airports expect to employ fewer people per million passengers. They’re predicting more passengers in the next few years, but fewer jobs.

When Infratil asked the Government for a £600k sweetener to tempt a passenger airline to use Manston, it said that it could handle ¾ million extra passengers with just 23 extra staff. That’s about 30 jobs per million passengers - a very long way from the 1,000 jobs per million that they’re promising us now.

Infratil tells the press now that 2.4 million passengers will create 2,070 direct jobs. However, Infratil’s Master Plan says that 2.4 million passengers will deliver just 600 jobs.

It’s time they got their numbers straight.


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Surely we can trust Infratil’s numbers?

HBM

Infratil (who own Manston) also own Prestwick Airport near Glasgow. In autumn 2008 Infratil’s forecast for passenger numbers at Prestwick was 5.7 million by 2018 and 12 million by 2033...

Almost immediately, freight and passenger business plummeted, and Prestwick ran at a loss for the rest of the year. Shortly after that, 50 staff lost their job. By autumn 2010, passenger business had fallen so much that another 120 staff had been made redundant... so much for Infratil’s forecasts.

Infratil’s forecasts for Manston are no more reliable than its forecasts for Prestwick. In October 2008, the Master Plan said Manston would have 1,200,000 passengers this year. But by November 2009, the Master Plan forecast had dropped to just 100,000. In fact, the actual passenger total for 2011 will probably be around 35,000 - less than 3% of what was forecast just three years ago. The Council says Infratil’s Master Plan is aspirational… that’s one word for it.

Charles Buchanan is Manston’s CEO. When he was at London City Airport, he said that an extra 36,000 flights - none of them night flights, by the way - would make 3,135 jobs. He got his flights, but created only 726 jobs, around 200 of which went to local people. So, the promised 3,135 jobs turned into around 200 jobs for locals - not a great track record.

Of course, nobody can guarantee that every job created will go to a local - that would be illegal.


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If it’s in the Master Plan, it must be right. Right?

HBM

If only! Even the Department for Transport says that airport Master Plans tend to be so over-optimistic about future passenger numbers that it applies its own “pinch of salt” discount when it produces its national forecasts.

For example: in 1991 Manchester Airport wanted to build a second runway, and promised this would create 50,000 direct, indirect and induced jobs.

The runway opened in 2001, and by 2006 there were 4,000 additional jobs at the airport. Even allowing for another 2,000 indirect and induced jobs, the promise of 50,000 extra jobs was just a flight of fancy.


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