Thanet Council to form Manston Airport business plan

The airport was closed in May with the loss of 150 jobs

A business plan to reopen Manston Airport is to be developed after councillors agreed to accept the recommendations of a report looking into how to make the airport viable.

Thanet Council said it would also test the market to discover if anybody would be interested in buying the airport.

The report had suggested hundreds of millions of pounds of investment was required to get the airport working.

Manston Airport, in Kent, was closed in May with the loss of 150 jobs.

The report, by industry experts Falcon Consultancy Limited, had found that a 20-year business plan and political support on a national level would be required to rebuild confidence in the airport.

Iris Johnston, the Labour leader of Thanet District Council, said the council was going through "very strict procedures" to discover if the airport could be reopened.

She said no compulsory purchase order would be considered by the council unless it had the backing of an investment group to provide the necessary support.

US investment firm RiverOak has previously made three offers to buy the airport.

Manston Airport was bought for £1 by Ann Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach Group, last October, but was closed five months later.