Kent airport gets air freight licence back
05.09.05
Newly sold Kent airport at Manston has been given back its Civil Aviation Authority licence to carry freight. The airport lost licences to carry passengers and freight when former owner Planestation went into receivership in July. Infratil, which bought the airport for £17m last month, said today that it had secured the new freight licence.
At the time of the sale, Infratil said freight would be reinstated first while passenger flights would take longer. Europe chief executive Steven Fitzgerald said freight operators were keen to bring business to Manston, because of the fast service it could deliver and its proximity to distribution centres and London.
Fitzgerald said the quality of the existing assets and the location of the airport close to London led to the company's confidence that demand for freight and passenger services was there. But he said reinstatement of passenger operations would take longer because passenger airlines had to make fleet allocation decisions and start marketing and ticket selling before flights could begin.
Infratil also said it would take some time to bring the airport to profitable operation because there were no existing flights from the airport. It has set out a 10 year plan for the airport and hopes to make it a new budget airline hub.
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