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A team of investors have admitted they may need to operate up to eight cargo flights a night if their plans to reopen Manston airport are given the go-ahead.
RiverOak Strategic Partners have begun a series of public consultations across Kent this week, with the aim of winning public support for their plans.
The company believe their proposals could create up to 4,200 directly employed jobs within 20 years of reopening and support 26,000 jobs in the wider economy.
A US group, RiverOak Investment Corporation, tried to buy the airport before its closure in 2014 and has since cut ties, transferring all its assets relating to the Manston acquisition attempt to the new UK company.
Bosses launched the consultation in Herne Bay on Wednesday saying they expect to submit a planning application to ministers later this year, under a process known as a development consent order.
They anticipate a decision will be made by early 2019.
RiverOak then expects to reopen Manston airport within two years and predicts to be managing 10,000 air freight movements a year within five years.
The majority of these would be in the daytime but it admits it may run up to eight cargo flights a night between 11pm and 6am, although it said this was a “worst case” scenario. Any future passenger flights would be daytime only.
Ramsgate Society chairman John Walker said: “It will devastate the town we cherish.
“The noise impact alone of heavy, probably old, 747s flying low in and out of the airport, roughly every 20 minutes, will be enormously intrusive and destructive to the lives of all those residing and working in and around Ramsgate.
“The UK’s only successful cargo-focussed airport, East Midlands, has more than half of its cargo flights come in at night.
“That is the nature of the air cargo market. To persuade cargo airlines to move to Manston, RiverOak will have to offer night flights.”
The airport would create 350 jobs in first year, according to the consultation, and 850 in its second year.
“The noise impact alone of heavy, probably old, 747s flying low in and out of the airport, roughly every 20 minutes, will be enormously intrusive and destructive to the lives of all those residing and working in and around Ramsgate..." - John Walker, Ramsgate Society
Manston airport employed nearly 150 people when it closed in 2014, having lost more than £100 million during 16 years of private ownership, according to a report by Kent County Council in 2015.
Earlier this year, RiverOak’s US investors set up a UK company, RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP), to handle the planning application.
The consultation document said: “Evidence shows that Manston airport struggled commercially in the past due to both under investment and inappropriate strategies.
“By targeting air freight, a business sector where there is a proven, unmet demand, and developing a broader range of revenue streams, Manston airport will have a more solid foundation upon which to build.”
The Manston site is owned by Stone Hill Park, backed by the same developers who rejuvenated Discovery Park in Sandwich.
They want to turn the site into 2,500 homes, leisure and commercial space.
Spokesman Ray Mallon said: “The reality is that to stand even a slim chance of making a go of aviation, RSP will need to turn the site into a 24-hour cargo hub.
“Plans outlined by RSP’s research consultant Dr Sally Dixon envisage 72 flights day and night by 2040, along with hundreds of HGV trucks per week bringing in fuel and transporting goods.
“They intend to apply to the government for a development consent order to seize the land from Stone Hill Park in order to carry out their plans.
“RiverOak have never been clear as to who their backers are or where the £320 million required would come from, nor have they been open on issues such as night flights and pollution.
“The plans outlined so far by RSP would, in our view, represent an economic and environmental nightmare for local residents. The public consultation events taking place over the coming weeks offer a real chance for residents from the whole area to put RSP on the spot.”
The consultation events take place at:
The consultation runs until Sunday, July 23.
