Holiday Company Kent Escapes and Infratil will be hosting a Fun Day event, @ KIA Manston, tomorrow Sunday April 1st between 11am and 4pm. On offer will be distraction for children including a magician, balloons, face painting and James Hemming (Invicta), and for adults the chance to see what’s on offer win a holiday or other prizes and take advantage of generous discounts for families and couples.
If you are looking to go away this summer what could be better, 10 minutes from your front door (Thanet), easy parking right next door (which is free tomorrow), save yourself money on the holiday and when you go, you wont have the hassle of ruining your holiday with a long car journey or the crush at check-in.
Seguro Holidays who own Kent Escapes are a thriving company, who know what their doing, as Wendy Pollock, Sales Manger recently said “We held two similar events at Kent International last year and they were both hugely successful.” This year they have added Palma (my favourite Mediterranean). Having flown a couple of times from Manston and often from Gatwick or Heathrow, I know which is best and that is Manston.
Airport operator and owner Infratil are also a successful company, that has despite all the recent meddling by local authorities, their experts and lack lustre local quangos, with its steady, sustainable approach been building up its business. Its easy for us locals to be diverted, particularly when our local councils, believe that they can interfere in the business world, with good intentions and some naïve business plans our money and still they screw up.
The future is good for Manston, Infratil is a company that is expert in its business, operates several successful airports around the world and is seeing growth in its freight business at KIA having more than doubled its freight handling this January 07 2,823 tonnes compared with 1,336 tonnes last January 06 as well as seeing an increase in freight services over the busy December period.
The location is good its easy to get to by road (there are 1.4 million who live in Kent most less than an hour away) and it will be even better once the new faster trains are running from Ramsgate to St Pancras in North London.
Anyway if you want a good holiday flying from Manston, it means most of us wont need to worry about M25 hold ups, instead you can worry if you’ve got you Passport, which if you, haven’t and its on the kitchen table, you might just have time to nip home, particularly if you live in Thanet.
This year Kent Escapes Brochure in PDF Format
Are you Infartil's new PR guy, or just angling for a free holiday?
ReplyDeleteHere in Ramsgate the fact that they're becoming more successful literally goes right over our heads. And don't give me the usual rant about 'it's been an airport since 1836'. The point is, if anyone was trying to get planning permission today for a runway 1km from a town of 40,000 people they'd be laughed out of the planning office!
Can I have a window seat, well I'm sure that you will find at least one reference to my pro Manston stance I think maybe on Eastcliff Matters and yes I think I have mention a date circa 1917.
ReplyDeleteIn any case Ramsgate may have sprawled out towards the KIA rather than the other way round.
Still it is of concern the amount of Ramsgate residents who being both hard of hearing and short of sight have been hodwinked into buying property only to discover years later a bloody great big airport and runway at Manston.
Its obvious that if local the authorities leave development of the airport to professionals then the chances are East Kent we will have a sustainable Airport.
I would however like to see a compensation scheme bought in for any one who purchased their present home prior to the its first use as a airport in 1917 how about an million each
So there you go - you are trotting out the same argument. Which is the same argument everyone in Margate and therefore everyone in TDC trots out.
ReplyDeleteAnd I suppose with Margate dying on its arse, and Ramsgate attracting millions of pounds of inward investment because of its attractive Regency and Georgian architecture, and delightful harbour and marina (which were there long before the airport seeing as history appears to be your only justification), it only makes sense that people from the north of the isle would support the airport out of spite.
Let's face it, Ramsgate's got everything going for it, and Margate is a dead duck. The problem for Ramsgate is that it's ruled from Margate. If it were the other way run, I'm sure we'd be seeing the airport moved to the Dreamland site or one of the other arsoned out holes you have over there.
It's time to call a halt to any more public subsidy for Manston and let it dwindle away to being an aerial playground for Tory council candidates. It's never going to be another Gatwick (and by the way, Gatwick is north of Crawley so the only people disturbed by take offs and landings there are a few farmers). The only people who'll ever want to holiday from Manston are a few locals like you. We have excellent road connections to Gatwick and Heathrow and nobody in their right mind west of Margate is going to choose Manston over them.
As for being hoodwinked into living in Ramsgate, yes I suppose you could say that as I was relocated here in 1968 when my Dad was posted to Manston by the RAF. When it was an RAF base, of course we had no choice about it, and to a great extent we were proud and happy to have it here. Now we do have a choice, it's an anachronism, and is probably a net loss to the public purse as without it Ramsgate would be doing even better than it is at the moment.
What would be the alternative if Manston were to cease operation as an airport.
ReplyDeleteSince it has the potential for thousands of houses, it will become an unpleasant housing estate.
Further disrupting life because one thing you can bet your life on is that local authorities have proved time and time again, that they have no idea about the bigger picture, just look at Westwood Cross no adequate transport solution and Joke of the week must be KCC asking for £250,000 for road improvements when £2.5 mill would be closer the mark. Last year developers Taylor Woodrow agreed to fund road improvements of £4.9mill in Ashford.
No wonder their are so many developers in this area, must have something to do with the Muppets in charge.
Not sure about the aerial playground for council candidates bit! I work for a living and quite possibly, the demands of running an aviation business in parallel with other businesses, would be beyond the previous correspondent!
ReplyDeleteTony is right though, we have a choice, Manston as an airport or Manston as a giant housing estate?
If it's the latter then rather than nice rows of houses filled with people with disposable incomes, what the area needs economically, the reality would be closer to a Gulag as more and more people are forced-out towards this part of Kent by rising property prices. Something like Milton Keynes but much worse!
So you decide. A huge housing estate "Manstonville" or a continued effort to find a means of making the airport pay for itself in a way that contributes to the local economy.
Could not agree more Simon
ReplyDeleteManstonville please.
ReplyDeleteAnd do feel free to make patronising remarks about Ramsgate voters, Simon, after all you're standing in Westgate so it won't lose you any votes there.
That's a good idea!
ReplyDelete