Manchester Airport - General Thread

[Land23R]

A general query if anyone can help please.
I've clicked on 'like' for a couple of posts this evening and on my screen it reads as 'you' not 'Land23R'.

What am I doing wrong or does it read correctly to other readers? Apologies if I'm being dense - it's been a long day!

 

[jfy1999]

It does that to everyone. No worries!!

 

[Land23R]

It does that to everyone. No worries!!

Ah, thanks. Glad it's not just me.

 

[David_itl]

Here's the CAA's 2015 annual stats for MAN. Broken it into top 20 international overall, top 20 scheduled international and the domestic routes.

 

[Aceshigh]

is it me or has Austrian bedded in really quickly. Another A321 Saturday Or was that last of the Ski flights

 

[User001]

A321 is the Innsbruck ski flight.

However,my there are plenty of A319 flights on the Vienna run, and the A321 has operated twice on the Vienna run too.

 

[Land23R]

M.E.N. article.

The Airport MD, Ken O'Toole writing about trains, but highly relevant in terms of the airport's connectivity.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/opinion-ken-otoole-11138884

 

[Dobbo]

M.E.N. article.

The Airport MD, Ken O'Toole writing about trains, but highly relevant in terms of the airport's connectivity.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/business/opinion-ken-otoole-11138884

Connectivity via rail (HS2/3 and NPR) and Air (Flybe code shares) will become an increasing issue if the airport has designs on increasing passenger numbers beyond 30m and increase its long haul offer and frequency.

 

[User001]

They want to improve connectivity yet continually block more access from the North Wales lines.

The sub standard rail network in that area is becoming a joke now, the government in Wales is so skewed to the south that they have repeatedly refused electrification on the basis South Wales does not have it, and, have a cap on trains to Manchester Airport, London and Birmingham.

Sad to see, as quite a decent population belt that could tap into rail travel.

 

[TheLocalYokel]

............they have repeatedly refused electrification on the basis South Wales does not have it............

South Wales is getting electrification from Paddington. Enabling work on many parts of the GWR main line has been taking place for over a year with the Severn Tunnel due to close for six weeks in early autumn. The trackbed has to be dropped through all the tunnels, under many bridges and elsewhere. The original opening dates for electrification were 2017 as far as Bristol and 2018 into South Wales but, as is the way with these things, the project has slipped way behind schedule and the cost has risen dramatically as well.

 

[Dobbo]

Is it not network rail who are blocking access to North Wales?

 

[David_itl]

Passenger numbers up 11% over March 2015. http://www.thebusinessdesk.com/northwest/news/733446-best-ever-numbers-for-northern-gateway.html#

 

[User001]

Given we are now at 23.5m and there are over 2.5m extra seats this summer, the 25m mark should be a walk in the park now. Who knows, may even make it to 25.5-26m.

Bloomin marvellous figures.

I'm really impressed in the strides MAN has made so far, and with the future news, it's getting better. I do think the Virgin flights to San Fran and Boston are a bigger deal than many give credit for as to have a traditional legacy carrier like Virgin operate this sorts of routes is a huge coup, as normally these sorts of routes have been the reserve of leisure airlines like TCX.

I have nothing against TCX and wish them the best of luck, as for them to put destinations like Miami and Los Angeles on the map is certainly better than not being served at all, but to have an airline with an alliance link up (Delta codeshare onto Skyteam), frequent flier points (good for business) and a full summer schedule (TCX typically May-Oct versus March-Oct) does wonders for route longevity.

If someone had said even just 5 years ago that we would have 2 A380's a day, routes to San Fran, Los Angeles, Miami, Hong Kong, Beijing, Mauritius, Phuket and Jeddah, as well as services from the major locks of Easyjet, Vueling, Norwegian and Ryanai, I would have laughed out loud.

Long may the good times continue. We may not have had the 'headline grabbing news' of 11 new airlines, but our growth and variety of that growth is incredible.

 

[David_itl]

It's a far cry from when I 1st started going to the airport (1978) when it was log a movement and you did well.

It's all the more impressive that the long-haul routes are not down to a single airline adding all over the place but a range of airlines tapping into the origin+destination and those with opportunities for connecting. It also indicative that the average passenger load at MAN keeps on it's upward trend with movement increases being smaller than passenger increases. Indirectly not having BA hub here despite all the planning that was done in the mid to late 1990s with their own terminal constructed has been a boon for the airport. No one dominant carrier and fingers in all sectors of the market.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co...m-passengers-flew-manchester-airport-11167639
Ken O'Toole quote:

"This financial year, we will see services to Beijing, with Hainan Airlines plus Los Angeles and Boston, with Thomas Cook, begin. Plus next financial year San Francisco and Boston, with Virgin Atlantic, will launch. Such services are sure to prove popular with leisure travellers, as well as delivering a boost to businesses wanting access to these key markets and, as the year progresses, we look forward to securing yet more vital routes for passengers across the North.”

You do wonder what talks are being held with airlines and whether CAPA may want to revisit all that glisters in Birmingham for regional Brtiain.

 

[User001]

I've lost all the old respect I had for the CAPA articles after the Birmingham one and the latest one about Flybe where they seemed to miss the point of the codeshare, the headline, if you will, which was the 2 new Virgin routes and the fact that VS are building a secondary hub at MAN in particular.

I still don't know exactly what their BHX article was trying to achieve. They really lost it for me with the comment about BHX growing faster than MAN purely due to MAN maxing out its a Euro destinations. (So many things wrong with that comment alone).

As for Ken O'Toole, there are so many very juicy rumours at MAN right now, that even if just 25% of those rumours happened, it's a very bright future indeed.

Just the basics of the rumours are the Norwegian base at last, more Vueling, More BA, a carrier setting up a scissor hub at MAN, more Delta/Virgin, and it's expected the US PBC will be confirmed this year now that it has been fully paid for.

 

[Land23R]

Full details of March figures now on MAN web site.
http://mag-umbraco-media-live.s3.amazonaws.com/1005/march-2016.pdf

David, the other big change from 1978 and the 80s is that scheduled international traffic in March was 80% of the total.
I know it's mainly because RYR, Jet2 & EZY are 'scheduled' and some of the TCX, MON & TOM I believe, but what a change from years ago when charter in summer was something like 70%, wasn't it?

Great to hear plenty of rumours still bubbling User001. Is Air China regarded as a fait accompli to be announced later in the year?

 

[User001]

Yes the air China is about as confirmed as it can be without tickets going on sale. Something to do with MAG/Hainan deal which prevents the launch until winter. Air China given a good incentive to wait until Oct 25th.

 

[Dobbo]

What could BA achieve at MAN without a (seriously) massive investment that they cannot achieve through their alliance partners?Eastern routes are becoming progressively saturated and DL/VS are starting to cover western bases (together with UA and AA).

Who would operate a scissor hub at MAN?

If hope VS would increase SFO and introduce LAX - both on a year round basis.

 

[Dobbo]

Yes the air China is about as confirmed as it can be without tickets going on sale. Something to do with MAG/Hainan deal which prevents the launch until winter. Air China given a good incentive to wait until Oct 25th.

Once Air China are on board, may we see some movement on China Southern and/or Eastern?

 

[EGCC_MAN]

On the topic of CAPA, their Chief Airports Analyst hails from Shaw (Oldham) according to his bio. So he should be well versed in issues affecting MAN. The BHX article is attributed to 'CAPA', so I can't tell who actually wrote it. One would hope that CAPA has a more rounded understanding of MAN than the errors in that article implied.