PLANESTATION, the regional airports owner, has suffered a setback on the eve of the launch of EUjet, its part-owned discount airline.
MK Airlines, the freight carrier, has withdrawn from its former base at PlaneStation’s flagship Manston airport, near Ramsgate in Kent, in protest over a doubling of landing charges. Although PlaneStation has downplayed the loss of MK Airlines, it comes at a crucial time for the company.
EUjet, an airline set up by P. J. McGoldrick, a Ryanair chief executive in the 1980s, is due to start scheduled passenger flights on Wednesday.
PlaneStation has a 30 per cent stake in EUjet, which it views as a core component of the Manston growth strategy.
EUjet, which will use 100-seater Fokker 100 aircraft for low-cost flights to 21 European destinations, has estimated that 500,000 passengers will travel through Manston, its operations hub, in the first year of business.
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An MK Airlines spokesman said that Manston had increased its landing charges from £3 per tonne to £6 per tonne, making the airport an “uneconomic” base from which to operate.
MK Airlines, which claims it accounts for about 90 per cent of Manston’s revenue, said that it had shifted its annual schedule of 400 flights to Ostend airport in Belgium. Despite having now to transport its cargo from Ostend via sea and road to its UK destinations, the spokesman said that the overall cost was less than if it had stayed at Manston.
A spokesman for Manston Airport disputed that MK Airlines accounted for most of its revenue, but confirmed that the airline had stopped operating from the airport.
Manston has served predominantly as a cargo airport since playing a role in the Battle of Britain, but PlaneStation wants to turn it into a passenger airport on the lines of Stansted or Luton.
PlaneStation has had a turbulent year in which shareholders have forced the departure of Oliver Iny, chief executive, and Geoff Lansbury, the long-serving property director.
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Martin May, who has replaced Mr Iny, was not available for comment.