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25th July 2025
11:05am BST
An English airport that has been out of use for a decade is set to make a return, potentially providing locals with cheap budget flights while creating more than 2,000 jobs.
Manston Airport, near Margate in Kent, is a former Royal Air Force base that played a significant role in both of the World Wars.
After 10 years of disuse, the site is set to reopen in 2028 following a major refurbishment that will cost upwards of £500 million.
Currently, the airport’s main feature is a huge runway — 2,748 meters long and 60 meters wide — that was rumoured to have been specifically designed to make space for emergency landings for Concorde jets and the NASA Space Shuttle.
This will be upgraded and supported by the constriction of new terminals.
While the airport will be used to support cargo operations at first, organisers have long-term plans to introduce passenger services to the site for the first time since its closure in 2014.
Per Nottinghamshire Live, the airport have already had discussions with a range of budget flight providers including Ryanair, easyJet and Wizz Air over providing cheap flights for passengers.
Potential holiday destinations could be the Netherlands, Spain, Cyprus and Malta.
Tony Freudmann, the main board director at the company who control the airport, told Kent Live last month: “Looking at the way the passenger market is going, we are confident we can persuade one or more low-cost carriers to base their planes here.
"It does not work for us if they fly in just once a day because that is not economic. If they base three or four planes at Manston, we will have rotations three or four times a day, as they have at Southend.
"That will cover our costs and bring passenger footfall through the terminal all day and every day. We will reinstate the twice daily KLM service to Amsterdam Schiphol that we had before and that will give business people in particular access to almost anywhere in the world."
According to the firm behind the airport’s regeneration, the scheme will create 650 construction jobs and a further 2,000 permanent roles once the site is up and running.
They said: "The project requires no government funding and has attracted several international investors who are prepared to invest £800 million in this deprived part of the country."
