STAFF at Manston's Kent International Airport were told today that 127 jobs are to vanish following the collapse of EUjet and its parent company PlaneStation.

Redundancy notices will be handed out almost immediately, the workers were informed. The announcement was expected but it is still a major blow to Thanet's economy.

The airport, so recently a hub of flights across Europe, will be left with a skeleton staff whose role will be simply to keep the airfield in an operational state.

On top of that, the cost of insuring the airport means that no flights will be allowed to take off or land at all, leaving the airport silent.

The administrators, who took the decision to hand the 127 staff their redundancy notices, hope that prospective buyers will be able to resume operations.

The South East England Development Agency is providing assitance to the staff who have been paid the full wages owed to them.

So far it is understood the airport has not received any offers from other airline companies to operate low-cost flights.

The future of EUjet and its employees is being handled by an administrator from the Republic of Ireland.

* kmfm's Liz Leonard has been speaking to the Kent Messenger Group's business editor Trevor Sturgess about the redundancies...