Abandoned Manston Airport in England to be reopened

Travelers to England may soon have a new destination, as an airport that was already in use during the First World War is set to be revived.

Manston Airport, also known as Kent International Airport, near the town of the same name on England's southwest coast, was a military airport for a long time. Since the 1960s, it has increasingly been used for civilian purposes. Although the airport was even renamed London Manston Airport for marketing reasons, civil aviation has struggled there. London is approximately 120 kilometers from the airport.

Several attempts to operate the airport profitably failed. Among them, the now-bankrupt British airline Flybe offered flights from Manston to Edinburgh, Belfast, and Manchester in 2010. The Dutch airline KLM flew to the airport twice daily from Amsterdam from April 2013 to April 2014.

Although the airport was also of some importance for cargo flights, it was closed when KLM flights to Amsterdam were discontinued.

In July 2019, RiverOak Strategic Partners acquired Manston Airport and announced its intention to reopen it in 2022. The timeline never materialized, but the company hasn't given up. Planning permission for the airport's redevelopment was initially granted in 2022, and in May 2025, the British government published documents authorizing the airport's operation for both cargo and passenger traffic.

Around £500 million (approximately €578 million) will be invested to allow the airport to reopen in 2028. Plans include a new airport terminal and a complete airfield renovation, so that passenger flights can once again take off from there in the long term. However, this will likely only happen once the cargo business is operating successfully.

KLM, Ryanair and Easyjet are mentioned as possible airlines that could fly from Manston – possible destinations would be cheap connections to the Netherlands, Spain, Cyprus or Malta.

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