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Expansion afoot at Kent International Airport

Expansion afoot at Kent International Airport A 25-year expansion strategy has been unveiled which will see a significant increase in traffic at Kent International Airport (KIA).

The airport's owners, Infratil, hope that the scheme wil serve to increase passenger numbers to over one million people by 2011 and believe that this could even rise to as much as six million by 2033.

The report indicated that KIA could become "an increasingly attractive alternative for airlines and passengers as congestion increases".

Around 16,000 people currently use KIA each year and the complex has one terminal and a runway which the report indicates can afford "sufficient capacity" to manage the expansion.

Moreover, officials hope that a rise could be experienced in freight passing through the airport from 33,000 to 500,000 tonnes.

Matt Clarke, KIA chief executive, told Kent News: "We are well placed to become a significant regional airport for both passenger and freight services".

"Over the three years since acquiring the airport we have built a great team, invested in new equipment and now propose to take the airport to the next level."

"We expect passenger growth to stem from in and around the Kent catchment area as congestion at London airports increases and services to and from convenient regional airports like KIA become increasingly attractive," he added.

This move will be mirrored by an improvement to transport links to the airport, while will be carefully managed so as not to have a detrimental effect on the local area.

This will involve a significant increase in domestic flights to destinations such as Dublin, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Manchester and Belfast, alongside European routes such as Alicante, Faro, Palma and Malaga.


Airport News posted on 09 October 2008

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