The owner of Manston airport in Kent hope to attract passenger services once it has been re-established as a cargo hub.
Owner RiverOak Strategic Partners won a development consent order (DCO) from the Department for Transport last week after five years of detailed scrutiny.
The approval will enable development work to take place in a bid to have the former Battle fo Britain airfield operational again for cargo flights by early 2025.
The company, which says it plans to invest up to £500 million into Manston, said: “Our plans seek also to attract passenger services and business aviation too, providing the people of Kent with an international airport once more.
“Our proposals will also create over 23,000 jobs across east Kent and the wider national economy.”
KLM ran flights to its Amsterdam hub until Manston shut in 2014.
Now there are suggestions that budget carriers such as Easyjet and Ryanair could be attracted, with talks already reported to have taken place.
RiverOak director Tony Freudmann told KentOnline: “Looking at the way the passenger market is going, we are confident we can persuade one or more low-cost carriers to base their planes here.
“It does not work for us if they fly in just once a day because that is not economic. If they base three or four planes at Manston, we will have rotations three or four times a day, as they have at Southend.
“That will cover our costs and bring passenger footfall through the terminal all day and every day.
“We will reinstate the twice daily KLM service to Amsterdam Schiphol that we had before and that will give business people in particular access to almost anywhere in the world.”
But freight services would have to be established first.
“You can’t have unconditional discussions when you haven’t got a DCO,” Freudmann reportedly said. “What we do know is that [airlines] are very interested; they run feeder services from other regional airports.
“If you take operators like Ryanair and EasyJet, their problem is that at Gatwick, Luton and Stansted, there are no more slots between 6am and 7am. If you can’t take off before 7am, it compromises the efficiency of the day; so they base their planes at Southend; the same will be at Manston.
“It works very well for them because they capture the global market, particularly for business people who do not like Heathrow. We are confident it will work again.
“We have been in limbo. Now that is over we can resume these conversations, as well as those we have been having with cargo operators.”