Save Manston Airport association

04/05/2026

Great News!

The Bristow UK Coastguard Helicopters have spent their last night at the Dover MRCC.

As of Today - Monday 4th May, they will occupy and be a permanent resident of Manston in the ex. RAF SAR Hangar 3!

Thanks to Gary Blake for the photos 📸

21/10/2025

From Sir Roger Gale.

I remain unashamedly supportive of the aviation and travel industries. Taken together they are worth thousands of jobs and millions of pounds to the UK economy.

Many of those jobs are already in East Kent and more will follow with the re-opening of Manston.

Aviation and the environment are not incompatible and I look forward to the day when hydrogen/electric aircraft are flying from a net zero carbon local airport. It can happen and I believe that it will happen.

The owners of Manston RSP, expect to be determining airspace requirements with the Civil Aviation Authority during November and December before then going out to public consultation in Ramsgate and Herne Bay in February next year.

21/05/2024

DCO Appeal Dismissed - We have a DCO !

On the RSP website, Tuedsay 21 May 2024

DCO appeal dismissed: “It’s time to turn our plans for Manston into reality”
21 May, 2024
The Court of Appeal has dismissed the application from Miss J Dawes to appeal against the Manston Airport Development Consent Order (DCO) decision, paving the way for work to begin to reopen the airport as a state-of-the-art cargo hub – more than ten years after it closed its doors.
Following the Court of Appeal hearing in April, which considered the decision to dismiss an application for judicial review of the Development Consent Order, Lord Justice Jackson, Lord Justice Lewis and Lord Justice Warby have today (21 May 2024) published their decision which denies the appeal.
This means that the DCO remains granted, as announced by the Department for Transport in August 2022, and work can now begin to transform Manston and recruit staff both for the construction phase and for operational roles once the airport is ready to reopen.
Tony Freudmann, Director of airport owners RSP, expressed his thanks for the overwhelming support of local people and stakeholders through the process and his relief at a conclusion to a planning process which has cost millions of pounds of public and private sector money – and taken seven years to resolve.
“We have always remained confident in our proposals and unshaken in our belief that we can create something very special at Manston which delivers both important capacity for UK air freight – and a sustainable economic boost for East Kent,” he said. “It’s time to turn our plans into reality.”
“Although the past seven years have been intensely frustrating at times, the fact that we have gone all the way to the Court of Appeal means no stone has been left unturned in the examination of our proposals. We can now deliver our plans knowing with certainty that we have demonstrated, beyond question, that Manston has a vital role to play in addressing the airspace capacity issues blighting London and Southeast – and that this historic and strategically important airport can reinvent itself once again to meet the nation’s needs in the global marketplace.”
It is anticipated that detailed planning, construction, recruitment and the completion of the airspace change project will now take three years in total to complete – with the airport ready to receive flights in 2027.

09/02/2024

2024 Update :

It is confirmed that the Court of Appeal has granted Jenny Dawes permission to Appeal on Need, but not on Climate Change.

More information to follow!

17/01/2023

SMAa Committee Statement 17 JAN 2023

It gives us great pleasure to announce that the Judicial Review of the DCO for Manston Airport has been thrown out by the judge.

This was a long, tedious time for us all, but thankfully righteousness prevailed.

All systems are now GO!

Just in time for the AGM this Sunday. Get tickets if you haven’t already!

RSP STATEMENT :

We have just been notified that the application for a Judicial Review of the Government’s decision to grant the DCO has been dismissed.

We now look forward to getting the process of turning Manston into a state of-the-art air freight hub underway and working to support the long-term economic development of East Kent, through the reopening of Manston, that we set out in the application.

Thank you to all those who continue to support and believe in Manston.

04/10/2022

Autonomous air taxis - for people or cargo - which are we likely to see first ?

eVTOL developer Wisk unveils the latest version of its self-flying air taxi, which it hopes to get certified and bring to market 

01/09/2022

The Manston Airport Development Consent Order (DCO) has now been approved by the Government, meaning that RiverOak Strategic Partners (RSP) - a British company - can hopefully soon start work on re-opening Manston Airport for Aviation, after being closed for 8 1/2 years.
As you may now be aware, SMAa have designed and paid for the printing of some "Myth Buster" double-sided colour flyers, which are currently being distributed locally.
We felt many local people needed the solid truth about Manston Airport and its DCO, to dispel rumours and myths that were being propagated.

18/08/2022

The SMAa Committee are proud to announce that after 4 years of hard work and dedication from all its members, and especially RSP, the Development Consent Order (DCO) has finally been GRANTED by the Secretary of State for Transport.

This go-ahead from the government now enables RSP to invest over £300m into rebuilding a state-of-the-art 21st century airport at Manston, which includes an air freight hub and passenger terminal, as well as proposals to develop aircraft maintenance, repair and overhaul facilities and end-of-life recycling facilities; a flight training school; a fixed base operation for executive travel and business facilities for aviation related organisations. We hope for the airport to re-open sometime in 2025.

This will create many much needed jobs for the Thanet and east Kent area, and will enable rejuvenation of the local economy. As well as jobs, SMAa and RSP have worked closely with local schools, colleges and universities to promote and advertise STEM and aviation-related studies, in the form of apprenticeships, the construction of an onsite-aviation college and collaboration with local educational establishments to create opportunity and experience.

We would like to thank our many thousands of members and all local people that took part in the examination for the DCO, and would like to pay a very special thanks to RSP, who have been in the fight with us from the very beginning, well over 8 years.

A special thanks goes out to our excellent MP Sir Roger Gale, for his tireless and relentless hard work during the campaign - keeping the government, all 3 administrations since this fight began, on its toes and informed as to the latest in our campaign.

Let’s roll on the big party!

Thanks.
SMAa Committee.

10/05/2022

Well… update… or lack of… we are still waiting on the letter to be re-issued granting the DCO of Manston Airport.

A few months ago RSP were asked by the DFT to send a few bits of clarity on a few points, which hopefully is all they need to RSP to do.

We are still fully confident of a positive result as we all know how crucial the airport is to the local area and the country.

Keep the Faith!

11/03/2022

*DCO UPDATE*

The DfT have have sent a letter to RSP asking a few questions of clarity.

The deadline for RSP to respond is Monday 28th March.

Then, fingers crossed, we get our DCO. We’ve been waiting long enough!