Although this is tied in to the SFO route launch tomorrow, it does highlight the glaring problem staring Northern Britain in the face

"The challenge we have now is to make it work and to have a local transport infrastructure worthy of the global reach we increasingly have as an economy. It is no good shaving hours off of a trip to the other side of the world if we cannot get across the Pennines in decent time. The distance between Leeds and Manchester is less than that of the Central Line on the London Underground. However, the journey time between these two great cities is still embarrassingly slow. Investment in this area has never been so paramount and if we cannot deliver that effectively and quickly we are throwing away one of the best chances of success that Yorkshire has seen in generations."
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news...s-three-hours-to-cross-the-pennines-1-8461463
 
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Could not agree with that more.

Getting Leeds, Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle, Hull, York and the East Mids closer to MAN (in time terms) via more reliable and regular forms of transport would be a huge win.
 
I am ! :)

At least 14 scrapers.

No city outside London comes close, infact I'm not sure any other city has ANY major developments that can compete with 1 let alone 14!

And all private money!

If you are interested we have an urban forum for this type of discussion?
 
If you are interested we have an urban forum for this type of discussion?

I did cast down all 9 pages of the forum threads but could not find a more general thread so apologies re transgression.

My comment was not specifically related to building as such but the impetus that such a huge infastructure build could have in terms of investment, trade and of course the effect on business passengers through the airport. This is especially relevant if that is Asian or Middle Eastern money. Personally I think anything that impacts the Manchester Airport catchment is highly relevant but happy to have it moved.

Dobbo who is also active here, referenced the possible move of Channel 4 again this is not Manchester Airport related in any way shape or form but on a personal level I was very interested in that prospect.

If The Gaurdian also moves here ;

"With 4000 media staff in situ Media City is now seen as a credible altenative to London"

Having a Home based TV channel and a national paper would surely help rebalance London Centricism.

If you can send this to a more appropriate area that would not be a problem.
 
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An interesting article from the Independent.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/b...urists-uk-easter-edreams-odigeo-a7680001.html

"Edinburgh has surpassed London as the most popular destination in terms of year-on-year growth of flight bookings with a 66 per cent rise compared to 61 per cent for the capital. Bookings to Manchester went up by 48 per cent"

London has always been a favourite destination for travellers from around the world, […] What's really encouraging for the British tourism industry is that inbound arrivals are also up for cities across the country, including Edinburgh and Manchester.”
 
There are lies, damn lies and statistics. Whilst Edinburgh's percentage rise might be the largest, it is from a moderately low base. The article fails to quote real numbers and London's percentage increase indicates a far greater increase in the number of travellers and the Manchester figure will also outnumber Edinburgh's.
 
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Hi Phil - agree the article should be eater, but I'm not sure I agree with the last point. As this is about inbound tourism I think Edinburgh's start position is likely to be higher than Manchester's?

Onviously a 48% increase in (presumay inbound) booking is most welcome!
 
Interesting article but it includes some cautionary words too. e.g.
"Northern tech businesses received a further boost recently when Virgin Atlantic launched its inaugural flight from Manchester to San Francisco, the first direct UK route outside London. Entrepreneurs hope it will tempt US investors to look outside the capital, where tech companies received £1.4bn of the £1.9bn invested in the industry last year, according to the mayor of London’s promotional firm London & Partners.

The northern tech scene might not be under threat from Brexit, but there remains significant barriers to competing with London."
 
I've tried, without success, to find any reference in the Office of National Statistics web pages to the percentages quoted by the article.

Edinburgh Airport's own statistics page states it had an overall rise in passengers of 11% in 2016 from 11.16 million to 12.4 million but does not break down the figures further. Manchester's increase was from 23.1 million to 25.6 million, again without breaking down the figures.

The article is hazy about what flight bookings means. Does it include all inbound bookings, i.e. including return sectors on tickets with an origination from Edinburgh or just tickets booked abroad? If the figures do come from the ONS, then it will be the latter, though the collection of the figures is by random data collection by interview, i.e. the people you see with clipboards interviewing travellers at airports, and the methodology then is to publish percentage increases/decreases with the caveat of a margin of error.

There ia a perception that the bulk of traffic through Manchester Airport is locally based travellers. This does not stack up. Manchester is third in the league table of visitor and tourist destinations in the UK. Visitors are defined as those not staying at least one night, tourists stay at least one night. In both categories London comes first, the South East, excluding London, second, the North West third, Scotland fourth. The airport is a significant contributor to the tourist figure.
 
Some interesting comments from this article.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/apr/13/british-tech-turns-to-silicon-valley


GP Bullhound, an investment bank, says the north now has 12 tech “unicorns” – that is, companies valued at more than $1bn – which is more than Sweden or Germany.

Charlie Cornish - CEO of MAN talking about connectivity across the north of England to
MAN:

“It’s [the North] a massive part of the UK economy, and for Manchester airport to continue to grow and prosper and create more jobs, it will help to narrow that north-south divide. But unless you’ve got connectivity across the north, it’s very difficult to see how you can narrow that north-south divide.”

Greg Hands - trade minister, commenting having been lobbied by business leaders about the connectivity issue across the North:

"We’ve got a big infrastructure programme over the course of this parliament,” he said. “HS2 is obviously right at the centre of that but we’re also looking at smaller large schemes to increase and improve connectivity within the north. One of the things I hear businesses right the way across the north say is that one of the most important issues for them is connectivity to Manchester airport.”
 
Without getting to bitter another £5bn project for the SE re Thames Tunnel was given the go ahead yesterday.

Unfortunately any crticism is batted away with aplomb.

OUR slice of the pie is fantasy rather than spades in the ground.

Its a total mirage ALL based on HS2 AND a paper project over the horizon by a minimum 20 years.

Our MPs and indeed media are being duped and should hang their collective heads in shame.

£5bn is a meagre amout compared to the 20+ projects completed or underway in the SE, their paid shopping list stands at £95 bn by my reckoning !

£5bn would be transformational for the North of England and of course Manchester Airport.

All we require is an equitable share !

As I read once by a respected businessman
Investment in the North is in the Millions
In the SE it's Billions
1000 times more per million!

We are being conned and seemingly have nobody who has neither the wit or guile to respond.
 
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survived a redundancy scenario where I work for the 3rd time. Now it looks likely I will get to cover work for 2 other teams.. Pretty please for a payrise? That would be a no and so stay on the min wage.
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Well it looks like I'm off to Australia and New Zealand next year! Booked with BA from Manchester via Heathrow with a stop in Singapore and returning with Air New Zealand and BA via LAX to Heathrow. Will circumnavigate the globe and be my first trans-Pacific flight. First long haul flight with BA as well and of course Air NZ.
15 years at the same company was reached the weekend before last. Not sure how they will mark the occasion apart from the compulsory payirse to minimum wage (1st rise for 2 years; i was 15% above it back then!)
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