Travel-loving Londoners, this piece of news will be right up your street runway. An airport that’s been derelict for an entire decade could be making the ultimate comeback, as plans are in the pipeline to give a new lease of life to Manston Airport in Kent.
Just up the road from hip-and-happening Margate; this abandoned airport hasn’t been used for passenger flights since its final plane took-off to Amsterdam on April 9, 2014. Since then, it’s only been used as a (fairly drab and dreary) lorry park, but all that is about to change.
The history of the airport
First used in 1918; Manston Airport originally operated as a take-off and landing spot for the Royal Air Force during the World Wars. It then became a civilian airport in the sixties, transporting passengers to resorts in Mallorca and Yugoslavia.
In the 1980s, the aviation hub was officially renamed Kent International Airport at a ribbon-cutting ceremony, and in the early 2000s, there were big plans to turn the airport into a major budget airline hotspot, with planes jetting off to the likes of Porto, Verona, Naples and Amsterdam.
The future of the airport
Although (much like my own early-noughties dreams), those plans never quite materialised, as the airport was closed in 2014 due to constant losses. But it turns out that there’s still hope for Manston Airport as renovations are currently taking place, and the airport could reopen as early as next year.
Although the airport will initially only serve as a cargo airport, there are plans for passenger routes to be reintroduced from 2028 if the venture becomes a soaring success. £500 million is set to be invested to rejuvenate the airport, with shiny new terminals and fresh runways in the pipeline.
RiverOak Strategic Partners bought the airport for a whopping £16.5 million back in 2019, and permission was granted for its redevelopment in 2022. The redeveloped Manston Airport will hopefully attract budget airlines such as Ryanair, EasyJet and Wizz Air, and aims to offer cheap flights to popular European destinations such as Spain, Malta, Cyprus and The Netherlands.
The project is set to create around 650 construction jobs, and 2,000 permanent jobs once the airport is operational. The success of the other smaller airports near London suggests that there is plenty of demand for more passenger flights.
It sounds like the new-and-improved Manston Airport will be ready for take-off pretty soon. All aboard!