Airport protesters close Manchester Airport
On the 24th May 2010 Manchester Airport was closed for 20 minutes and the World Freight Terminal disrupted for around 2 hours after a protest by Plane Stupid. A group dedicated to reducing airport expansion on the grounds of climate and environmental issues.
The world freight terminal is due to be further developed and expanded next year and the banners unfurled by the protesters from Plane Stupid read "More air freight, More climate change, stop all airport expansion now". What they seem to have failed to grasp is that the aircargo industry in the UK is suffering badly and there is less airfreight transitting from and to Manchester Airport now than in years gone by. The freight figures for the World Freight Terminal at Manchester Airport indicated in the media are 170,000 tonnes but these are unverified. In 2008 the figure was 142,000 tonnes which was a drop of 14% on the previous year.
The World Freight Terminal at Manchester Airport in the preceeding years has seen many freight companies move out, most noticably DHL Danzas who moved to Trafford Park, WTA who moved over to the Manchester International Office Centre in Styal and TDG Brisk who also moved down to Trafford Park. The multi-user buildings, 302, 305, and 308 all have considerable empty office space as the airport struggle to entice freight forwarders back onto the Freight Terminal. Service forwarding specialist Cargo Overseas believes that being close to the cargo for them means being based on Manchester Airport. Mark Reid, Airfreight Director tells us "To serve our customers and provide the value added services our customers want it is imperative that our staff see the cargo, handle it and label it rather than leaving it to an off-airport warehouse"
A large proportion of the cargo which transits through Manchester's World Freight Terminal actually travels by road to either freight-forwarders gateways in the south or Airline's hubs in Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels and even Frankfurt. At a time when environmental impacts like the volcanic ash cloud which appears to have abated and uncertainty over the UK's export trade deficit it seems that the groups intentions, however well made, are directed at the wrong target. As passenger numbers continue to increase airfreight forms only a small section of the overall reliance on aircraft transitting into and out of the UK. They chose the correct aircraft for a protest of this type, A Monarch airlines aircraft which was no doubt headed to a tourist hot-spot but the easy target of the World Freight Terminal will do their cause no good at all.
