The Department for Transport has confirmed today that Bristow’s search and rescue service will not return to the Manston Airport site.

It will remain at Lydd Airport, where it has been based since July 1.

The 24-hour service, which covers the coast between the Isle of Wight and the Humber, was due to return to Manston in July last year, but provider Bristow Helicopters was forced to consider alternatives after the airport’s closure.

The RAF search and rescue (SAR) service was based at Manston until the mid-1990s and moved to Wattisham in Suffolk.

Bristow took over the contract in 2012.

North Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale said: “Naturally this is disappointing because Thanet would have liked to welcome the Search and Rescue facility back to Manston Airport.

“However, I have discussed the situation personally with the Minister, Robert Goodwill, and it is clear that maritime security has to take priority over our preferences or those of the DfT and the company.

“There are aircrew and support staff that have to be able to locate and services that have to be provided and while in the long term I do not believe that Lydd will prove to be the best site, I accept that this decision is now inevitable.”

“I must emphasise that this conclusion, unwelcome and frustrating though it is and necessitated because of the delay in securing the future of Manston as an airport, will in no way impact upon the viability of the airfield.

“Search and Rescue has never been an integral part of the RiverOak business plan.

“The acquisition process and the necessary environmental assessments and other work necessary to realise it, are very much on track.

“It is also the case that the Government and Transport Ministers, including the Secretary of State, remain as supportive as they have ever been.

“I remain absolutely determined to secure the future of Manston Airport as an operating airfield in the national interest and I have no reason to believe that that is not as achievable today and tomorrow as it was yesterday.”

Bristow Helicopters is the leading provider of search and rescue in the UK on behalf of HM Coastguard.

It has provided the service since 1971, conducting more than 15,000 missions and rescuing more than 7,000 people.