Ryanair could fly from Kent airport, new owner says

27.08.05

The new owner of Kent International Airport (formerly Manston), New Zealand-based Infratil, says low cost airline Ryanair could fly from the airport. Infratil Director Stephen Richards said yesterday that he would 'love to see Ryanair at Kent airport'.

Kent airport was shut down after the collapse of previous owner, PlaneStation, and its budget airline EUjet in July. Infratil announced on Wednesday that it had agreed to buy the airport for £17m, with the deal completed yesterday.

Infratil already has close links with Ryanair through its other UK airport - Glasgow Prestwick. It's Europe chief executive, Steven Fitzgerald, said: 'Ryanair is the best business in terms of low cost carriers. They have generated a massive amount of business across Europe and have been a very good business partner at Glasgow Prestwick.'

Although Ryanair tends to favour smaller airports some distance out from their city destination, making Kent and ideal fit, David Kaminski-Morrow, Editor of online news service Air Transport Intelligence, said the move would be unlikely, as Ryanair is well established at London's Stansted Airport.

Kaminski-Morrow said: 'One of Kent's main problems is it needs to be marketed properly as not enough people know exactly where it is. It's hard to see that Ryanair would be interested but you could never rule it out.' For its part, Ryanair has refused to confirm or deny the reports.