To night flight or not to night flight?

In 2011, Thanet District Council was asked by Infratil (previous airport owner) to comment on their proposals for night-time flying at Manston Airport.

Thanet District Council conducted a consultation and commissioned an independent assessment to draft a response to Infratil throughout 2011 and 2012. More information can be found here.

We believe the consultation was too limited and not representative.  Only 2,275 responses were received. The estimated population of Thanet in 2012 was 135,700. This means that only 1.67% of the population of Thanet were surveyed.

We, Save Manston Airport, challenge this consultation. We believe a larger consultation should have taken place which is more representative of the Thanet district. We also believe attitudes towards night flights will have changed significantly with the airport’s threatened closure.

Please remember – allowing night flights would not mean plane movements every minute of the night, it would likely be a plane or two a night every few days. Planes are also much quieter than RAF/USAF times that many residents remember, and any night flying policy would have noise restrictions.

Manston Airport’s proposed night flying policy can be found here.

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