American Airlines

[Dobbo]

MAN is not the only route to suffer from the AA B788 fleet having tech problems.

 

[ethanegcc]

Todays ORD flight is operated by a 763 and AA55 departure is delayed until 16:20 according to fr24.

 

[ethanegcc]

Apparently according to another forum AA will operate the 763 for the rest of the season.
I am not sure whether AA will "operate" the 788 next year I will have to do a dummy booking.

EDIT: From the start of the season until June 1st is 763.
from June 2nd it is supposedly showing as a 788 - hopefully there will be less issues by then.

 

[Dobbo]

For the longevity of the service it is probably better to have an on time B763 than a delayed/cancelled B788.

I would take a year round B763 over a seasonal B788.

 

[ethanegcc]

Me too - We really need an year round connection to that region. Hopefully if a DTW route does well it may go year round?

 

[Land23R]

Are the times similar to this summer? My impression from other comments is that one of the issues was the fact that MAN is now a later flight from ORD and that the allocated B788 came off a China service. If the decisions to cancel MAN flights were taken fairly late in the day, isn't there less flexibility to try and come up with a replacement aircraft and crew? This summer has been a significant time change from what used to be 18.00 departure or thereabouts from ORD and a 10.40 departure from MAN. I appreciate though that a later time from the US may afford better connections and may suit business folk better.

 

[Dobbo]

I think AA are pretty well committed to the market at MAN, and the B788 try is indicative of that. For whatever reason it hasn't worked out but I would expect AA to put right whatever went wrong this year for 2017.

They are going to come under increasing pressure from competitors and if they want to retain a strong market share at MAN will need to get right what went wrong this year.

 

[ethanegcc]

I agree - the whole point they refurbished the 763s to have full flat seats on the jfk-man route and tried the 788s on the ord-man route was according to AA "testament to the importance of the Manchester market to us" or something along those lines.

The times are exactly the same as this year for the 788 (13:15 departure) but the 763 earlier in the year is a 12:20 departure. Apparently it is also something to do with there being less overcrowding in t3 at that time.

Perhaps instead they could think about moving the PHL flight later (this has the best reliability out of the three - although still not great) as many people get connections from there and have the JFK flight theoretically the one with the least pax as it is a 763 in a morning which is t3's busiest time.

 

[ethanegcc]

The PHL flight today departed at 01:17am from Philadelphia arriving MAN at 12:28 - that's nearly 4 hours late! Not great but then again AA isn't great for reliability in general. PHL is generally on time though.

 

[Land23R]

The AA and UA flights from New York were also delayed. I suspect there were weather issues yesterday on parts of the East Coast that may have been the main cause of the delays. Ironically, I think our ORD was on time.

 

[ethanegcc]

Yes the ORD route has been doing better throughout this week - since it changed to a 763.
I have seen UA's EWR flight delayed hours before and although Delta has been delayed a couple of times it is only usually when there is a wider factor such as weather or delays accross the whole airport so, in my opinion, DL's flight is usually quite reliable and has a newer interior than AA's 763. So if I was travelling from MAN to the US East Coast I would probably choose Delta or AA's PHL flight.

 

[Dobbo]

Apparently the B788 is back?

 

[ethanegcc]

I am booked in Easter to travel on AA's 332 out to Philadelphia. Has anyone flew on this or indeed any AA 330 and is able to tell me anything about the service, food etc.? I am greatly appreciative of any info?

 

[Dobbo]

So apparently the PHL flight has a seasonal reduction this year (not sure if that is true of previous years?) but the notable news is that JFK seems to be suspended Jan-March 2017.

They have had such a bad run that their business at MAN is probably up for grabs, but this is a surprise if true.

 

[Yawner]

OAG reports elsewhere showed it at 0.9 per week in Feb down from daily. This could just be one or two planned cancellations or a reduction to 6 weekly. Also JFK 0.7 in November (5 weekly or reduces to 4 mid month)

AA and UA could be gone in the near future. I think any announcement from TCX or VS to one of their hubs will see them gone from that route. BA don't properly support their partner to MAN, choosing instead to heavily promote DUB. Rumours of SQ doing more from MAN may provide an exit route for UA.

I miss Continental and US Airways, who valued and knew how to operate to "regional" destinations.

 

[Dobbo]

They are under pressure, but I don't see a full scale retreat from UA or the AA/BA joint venture.

TCX and DL/VS seem to have struck the right balance for now, but there are so many moving parts and possible new entrants to the MAN-USA/JFK market that it will take some time to settle. It has expanded rapidly over the last few years and there has obviously been significant jockeying for position.

The good news for now is that MAN-JFK is a large pie, and it remains to be seen how that pie is sliced up.

 

[Jerry]

Are American airlines going to be starting a Manchester to Detroit route next year?

 

[Land23R]

Maybe you were thinking of DL. But it seems they have changed their mind and the route has been postponed.

 

[User001]

Not a chance. If it's regarding a Wikipedia entry, someone keeps adding it in even though it's totally incorrect.

 

[Jerry]

Not a chance. If it's regarding a Wikipedia entry, someone keeps adding it in even though it's totally incorrect.

Yes I did see it on Wikipedia and thought it a bit strange as I would've thought a Detroit route would be done by Delta or Virgin. Honestly don't know why people do that it's annoying!