The current owners of the site, RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP), received a redetermined Development Consent Order (DCO) from the Department for Transport in August 2022. RSP now plans to invest up to £500 million in the redevelopment of the site.
The planning application is for the upgrade and reopening of the airport primarily as a freight airport, with some passenger services, with a capacity of at least 12,000 air cargo movements per year.
RSP said the DCO will make it possible to provide much needed air freight capacity in the South East, helping to alleviate long term overcrowding in the London airport system and ease road congestion caused by lorries carrying freight through the channel tunnel to European airports.
A spokesman said: “As aviation propositions go, Manston is unique – because it will be built to be carbon net zero from scratch, enabling us to demonstrate to the Government how it can deliver on its commitment to grow the aviation sector, whilst still meeting its decarbonisation targets.
"Manston Airport will be a hub for cargo. Much of the UK’s cargo is being trucked to and from European airports. This is clearly an unnecessary environmental impact. Most fuel used and therefore emissions are generated on take-off and landing therefore a flight from, for example, Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Dubai would be very similar in fuel use to a flight from Manston to Dubai.
"At the moment, the UK is pushing its air freight emissions problem to parts of Europe. Therefore, when considered globally, the net result of reopening a new air freight facility at Manston will be a vast improvement on the current situation. Manston will be able to technologically and environmentally leapfrog other airports that are encumbered by legacy infrastructure, equipment, systems, and processes. Whilst other airports, needing to recoup losses sustained during the Covid pandemic, will likely want to sweat their existing assets for as long as possible, Manston will have net zero buildings, clean fuelled ground vehicles, and make provision for aircraft using new propulsion systems. The future of clean flight will be in the DNA of Manston Airport."
The redevelopment also represents a flagship levelling-up project, RSP continued, providing much needed economic and employment stimulus to one of the UK’s most deprived areas. RSP said the new cargo hub will create over 23,000 jobs across East Kent and the wider national economy by the airport’s 20th year of operation.
Alongside the work needed to return Manston to operational status, RSP said it will now accelerate its local procurement programme and partnership work with a wide range of business, education, training and local authority organisations, “to ensure local people and local businesses can derive tangible economic, employment and investment benefits from a revived Manston Airport”.
RSP Director Tony Freudmann paid tribute to the steadfast support of local people and leaders across East Kent in helping to deliver this decision.
“Today is a day to celebrate the culmination of years of campaigning. I would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary army of Manston Airport supporters who have never given up hope of seeing new life breathed into this historic aviation asset.
He added: “And I would also like to thank our two dedicated local MPs, Sir Roger Gale and Craig Mackinlay, as well as the thousands of supporters who have supported us from the start of the DCO process and have long shared our bold and ambitious vision for the airport.”
Surveys, detailed master planning and design work will commence in the next few weeks. Construction is expected to commence in 2023, with the airport operating its first cargo services in early 2025.
Photograph by James Stewart / jamesstewart.com, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=18771451