It seems to be a clutching at straws argument to be honest.

Yes, MAG own the #3 and #4 airports, but then consider that both of those airports combined still don’t match up to Heathrow’s passenger figure, I’m not quite sure how you can call into question the ‘unfair size of MAG’ or call it a monopoly?

Then where do we draw the line? Do we question BA’s monopoly on Heathrow slots? Or Easyjet at Gatwick? Or Ryanair at Stansted? Because they operate more than 25% of the passenger throughput of those airports, so that unfair surely?

Or should we also sanction Tesco? They have 28% of U.K. supermarket customers, over the 25% you state MAG should be investigated if they reach?

Seriously, straws in a clutch. It’s interesting LHR alone accounts for over 80m pax in normal times, versus MAG nearly 65m total, but it’s not the clear market dominance of LHR we should be investigating, it’s MAG? Really fighting the wrong enemies there?

Not clutching at straws, just not a MAN/MAG fanboy like some posters on this forum.

Unless you start selling off Heathrow terminals to different companies, you can’t do anything else there. Different terminals owned by different companies/airlines is a common model in the US, and looking at the state of many US airports, thats hardly a model we should be trying to strive for.

You answer your own point about BA, easyJet and Ryanair. Whilst they have monopolies at each of their respective airports, the catchment of the 3 airports has a large overlap and so passengers still have a choice. Even at the same airport, passengers have a choice of other airlines. For a large part of the East of England and the East Midlands, flying from a non-MAG airport requires a significantly longer journey, and in some cases just isn’t practical.

As you pointed out in an earlier post, there are over 30 airports in the UK. There are nowhere near that many supermarket chains in the UK. Therefore you would expect a supermarket chain to have a higher share of the market.

To be honest, at the moment I don’t think the size of MAG is a problem. However if its share of the UK market increases above a certain level, it should be looked at from a competition perspective. Maybe 25% is too low, but clearly there is a figure otherwise BAA would still exist. If the industry and independent “investigators” find its not causing any competition problems then fine it’s not.
 
I find that somewhat harsh. Nick Barton took over the helm at BHX shortly before the biggest downturn that commercial aviation has ever known. However, during that time the number of dedicated freight flights have increased significantly (OK, many of them are small aircraft), which have helped to continue revenue being generated for the airport.
As for him not being 'a proven leader as there is no proof of substantiated success', look at what he achieved at Luton and the growth of Easyjet at BHX.
Growth is never going to be an overnight task in commercial aviation. It often takes many years of discussion with an airline to deliver a new service (and we have no idea of what talks are going on on the background).
BHX will never have the 'clout' that MAG has with major airlines (although, personally I believe that MAG should be broken up as it has way too much of a monopoly outside of London). Be thankful that BHX is still operating. Had it been run poorly, you might now be seeing it bulldozed and turned into a housing estate and business/retail park.

Kevin

However Paul Kehoe took over in October 2008, shortly after the Financial crash of 2008, did he ever get a 49% pay increase ?
 
A monopoly definition is ‘exclusive possession of a service or commodity’. Given there are approximately 30 airports offering scheduled passenger service in the U.K., MAG owning 3 airports comes no where near monopoly status.

I saw this comment and I thought does it or doesn't it.

Reality is - MAG isn't a monopoly at all. EMA is more of a cargo airport then it is passenger though passenger revenue is most welcome and we know that EMA does relatively okay from passenger revenue.

Manchester serves the North West, Stansted London and the surrounding areas. No way do they have a monopoly on anything. East Midlands handles 10% of the combined Stansted/Manchester passenger numbers so I'd hardly call that a monopoly if you ask me.

East Midlands however probably 10x more cargo flying though it then Manchester/Stansted combined.
 
As to pay, May One suggest it reflects input before determining output? Put the work in before determining reward? If Mr. Barton or any other warrants an increase that appears excessive, how does one determine excess? Salaried staffs before waged? Unionised or not? Talented or fodder?

Please discuss!
 
Interesting that Ryanair are re-launching Belfast again and which three English airports have they picked?…..STN, EMA and MAN. What a shocker!
Birmingham has just had an announcement for several new routes and an extra aircraft based this winter has it not? Versus what? Either a 4 weekly or 14 weekly flight to Belfast? Hardly indiciciatrive of unfairness?
 
Hardly indiciciatrive of unfairness?

Not unfair, but when I saw which routes they would fly, I did clock the same thing.

However, looking at it logically, Stansted is their largest (UK and network wide) base, Manchester I think is their 2nd largest UK base and East Midlands is probably up there in the top 5 UK bases as well.

Prior to this announcement, Stansted only had easyJet serving the Belfast area (BFS) and East Midlands only had Flybe (BHD). Manchester had the same airlines serving the route as Birmingham - easyJet, Flybe & Aer Lingus - although I’ve not compared numbers of flights or seats available I would imagine they were fairly similar. No doubt if BHX was a similar size to MAN, and had an equally large RYR base, it would probably have seen a route from BFS as well.
 
Not unfair, but when I saw which routes they would fly, I did clock the same thing

But I still don’t get the premise of the original post to be honest. BHX gets several new routes, including completely unserved routes like Santander, which is amazing, but there still seems to be this cry foul nature because of 3 routes they launched from BFS which didn’t include, like those routes launched the other day didn’t count or something. It was like a ‘BHX never gets picked’ post, which it clearly does get picked.

I suppose I’m just tired of this undertone of anti-MAG that seems to be rife in this forum, seeping into many posts that goes relatively unchecked by moderators (many of said moderators actually join in), but if you call it out, then whaddya know, it’s like you cant moderate fast enough… 🤷
 
It was like a ‘BHX never gets picked’ post, which it clearly does get picked.

Personally, I didn’t take it that way. I’d much rather have the new routes that RYR have launched from BHX than a 4th airline flying to Belfast. However when any airlines opens a new base, and all the routes to a particular country go to airports owned by the same group it makes it very obvious that the airline and that group have a strong relationship which I think is only natural that others feel they are missing out.

I suppose I’m just tired of this undertone of anti-MAG that seems to be rife in this forum, seeping into many posts that goes relatively unchecked by moderators (many of said moderators actually join in), but if you call it out, then whaddya know, it’s like you cant moderate fast enough… 🤷

Maybe, just maybe, if it is so rife, and the moderators don’t have a problem with it, then maybe its not an undertone but just an opinion.

At the end of the day you can choose to be offended or you can choose to ignore it. Ultimately you’ll live a happier life doing the latter and I say that to everyone.
 
I suppose I’m just tired of this undertone of anti-MAG that seems to be rife in this forum, seeping into many posts that goes relatively unchecked by moderators (many of said moderators actually join in), but if you call it out, then whaddya know, it’s like you cant moderate fast enou
I’m not sure if you just like causing tension or what but whenever Manchester gets mentioned in a threads you get offended. There is a simple way “ignoring” the post.

Because i don’t know about others but I’m sick to death of negativity like this above.
 
To be fair BHX is well served to Belfast there were eleven flights yesterday to the two Belfast airports and I think its seven today, there are plenty of unserved or undesrerved routes that could do with attention before more Belfast.

As far as Ryanair and its relationship with the MAG group its long standing and fairly obviously suits both parties so good luck to them. BHX missed out years ago on the low cost revolutioncon with both Go when BA set them up before selling to EasyJet and Ryanair. Meanwhile BHX concetraed on legacy carriers with some success until BA pulled the plug, BHX have never managed to form a relationship like MAG have with both Ryanair and EasyJet or indeed say Bristol have with EasyJet.The current management seem to be slowly turning that around with the steady increase by EasyJet and Ryanair.

Regarding the BHX-MAN thing its been going on since Noah built his ark best viewed as mild entertainment and not worth getting knickers in a twist to coin a phrase.
 
There should be no need for any intervention by moderators. Everybody has the right to their own views as long as they don't infringe any of the forums rules.
Please continue to make the role of moderator a simple one. Enjoy the freedom and choice that F4A offers.
 
BHX has the longest flight delays in 2021


Initially, it doesn't sound too good, but the average delay was 12 minutes and 24 seconds. I didn't think the CAA considered a flight delayed until it was over 15 minutes late.

Kevin
 

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