Route Development & Rumours

[Ben Speck]

Julian Carr on LinkedIn has hinted at more international routes for Air India, which will be announced soon. Has anyone got any further information on a possible start date? Even if its just a rumour.

 

[Land23R]

Julian Carr on LinkedIn has hinted at more international routes for Air India, which will be announced soon. Has anyone got any further information on a possible start date? Even if its just a rumour.

Good question, but I suspect some of us have now become immune from the frustration of AI applying for slots at MAN and then returning them. It's gone very quiet on that front.
As you probably know, Julian Carr was a senior member of the MAN Aviation Development team for several years and I gather is now based at Delhi Airport. You would hope there is still good contact with him by MAN to help promote a MAN service, although, subject to politics, it's AI who will decide what new routes will open. And if it ever does happen, probably more likely to be BOM than DEL.

 

[Ben Speck]

Looks like egyptair is going daily from April and gulf Air is going 5 weekly from July. Source SPD Travels on Twitter. Excellent news, wonder if we will ever see a egyptair 787 at Manchester in the near future?

 

[Chilly Dog]

Not sure about Egypt Air 787 but spdtravels did also flag that Royal Jordanian had resubmitted their slot requests to allow 787 - and now they have them scheduled for the Wednesday flights in August and September.

May not happen of course, but it’s impressive for a route that has not even started!

 

[Jerry]

A new Asian link coming to Manchester China Eastern are proposing Shanghai to Manchester.

https://twitter.com/SPD_travels/status/1755646931622113493?s=20

 

[Land23R]

A new Asian link coming to Manchester China Eastern are proposing Shanghai to Manchester.

https://twitter.com/SPD_travels/status/1755646931622113493?s=20

You'll notice that SPD Travels posted it because it had already leaked and was common knowledge around the airport. Hopefully, it will be confirmed as soon as possible now.

 

[Jerry]

You'll notice that SPD Travels posted it because it had already leaked and was common knowledge around the airport. Hopefully, it will be confirmed as soon as possible now.

Yep, he did tease that there was something coming in a few tweets before but yeah the cat got out of the bag.

 

[SV02SVJ]

A new Asian link coming to Manchester China Eastern are proposing Shanghai to Manchester.

https://twitter.com/SPD_travels/status/1755646931622113493?s=20

Would this put an end to the Juneyao rumour to Shanghai?

 

[Aviador]

You'll notice that SPD Travels posted it because it had already leaked and was common knowledge around the airport. Hopefully, it will be confirmed as soon as possible now.

And for clarity, where there is no intellectual data and it has become common knowledge as highlighted in the post above, no credits are required.

More details on this can be located here

 

[domino85]

Did anyone watch the airliners live earlier today? Seems they may have let slip there's another 777 carrier on the way. My first thought was Thai as they applied for slots with a 777-300

 

[Scottie Dog]

This probably refers to the potential Shanghai service that has been discussed above.

 

[domino85]

This probably refers to the potential Shanghai service that has been discussed above.

It was as well as the China Eastern service

 

[Scottie Dog]

That will be very interesting then.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Courtesy of SPD_Travels on X

-Juneyao handed back to make way for China Eastern.
-Nile Air and Play have handed back slots
-Air China cargo have 2 weekly freighter slots and a hi-low being sourced for flights
-RAM still hold 3 weekly Tue/Thu/Sat

 

[Chilly Dog]

Not sure if this qualifies as a rumour, but LOT Polish fares now show flights between Manchester and Warsaw for Winter 2024 on some fares and some destinations.

They have filed schedules in GDS before, without commencing so perhaps this is an error too.

 

[David_itl]

Strange to say but MAN has been specifically mentioned by the Malaysian Airlines MD in a podcast as a potential destination https://aviationweek.com/podcasts/w...e-interview-malaysia-airlines-md-izham-ismail

And with the inaugural Royal Jordanian service tomorrow, we have this Simple Flying article which states...

"According to booking data, Amman was only Manchester's eighth-largest unserved Middle Eastern market for point-to-point traffic last year. Medina, Erbil, Riyadh, Tehran, Muscat, Dammam, and Sulaymaniyah were all larger"

https://simpleflying.com/royal-jordanian-5-hour-airbus-a319-flights-uk/

 

[Scottie Dog]

Thanks to SPT_travels on X

New route |

While subject to final confirmations, Air China cargo intend to run a 2 weekly B77F flight to Manchester:

CA3147 CAN 0445 MAN 1050
CA3148 MAN 1320 PEK 0555+1

Tue and Sun

Starts April 2nd 2024 if it goes ahead. Thanks to Paul Clare for the info.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Thanks to SPT_travels on X

New route |

While subject to final confirmations, Air China cargo intend to run a 2 weekly B77F flight to Manchester:

CA3147 CAN 0445 MAN 1050
CA3148 MAN 1320 PEK 0555+1

Tue and Sun

Starts April 2nd 2024 if it goes ahead. Thanks to Paul Clare for the info.

Same flight been showing on BHX screens for months!

 

[Scottie Dog]

With thanks to SPD_travel on X for this update on Air China Cargo:

The Air China cargo flights to Manchester are now showing on their website. For the first time in many years, MAN has a wide body cargo flight, and MAN-China getting a real boost this year.


Thanks to @andyd888 for highlighting.

More details on X. The service appears to start on 2nd April.

 

[IanFarquharson]

Air China Cargo service is a great coup for Manchester and well done to them for securing it.

The trade press (see below) were expecting BHX and slots of appeared for months but it was not to be due the success of the B744 operations now at BHX putting pressure on ramp and storage on the Elmdon side.


Meanwhile, another Chinese operator has been rumoured to start freighter operations to Birmingham in the UK.

Following an enquiry by The Loadstar today, a spokesperson for BHX said: “Air China Cargo is planning to run Beijing-Guangzhou-Birmingham services on a B777-F aircraft three times a week. We expect to see these in play this side of Christmas.”