North Thanet`s MP, Sir Roger Gale, has this (Thursday) afternoon promoted the cause of the development of Manston Airport as a key contributor to the future of aviation in the South East.

 

Speaking during the Commons debate on the Transport Select Committee  report on Aviation Strategy the MP said:

 

“This survival of London as the major European aviation hub is of vital importance to the future of the economy of the United Kingdom. It is not only, or even, those passengers who are changing planes that create jobs but the contribution to tourism and to the business of the City of London that are at stake.

 

We are, today, losing business to Schiphol, Charles de Gaulle, Frankfurt and, further afield, to Dubai and this is happening as we speak.

 

Whatever the long-term solution to runway capacity, whether it be Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted or a Boris Island, we have to plug the short-term gap. Manston, with the fourth longest runway in the country and potentially less than an hour from London, has the ability to take business from Gatwick to in turn release capacity at Heathrow to maintain the business while the long term decisions are taken and built.  We are probably fifteen to twenty years away from any new provision. In the meantime Manston is not a local or a regional but a national asset that is available today and  that we cannot afford to waste”.

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