Archive Route Development & Rumours

[David_itl]

2020 vision for Ukraine international https://www.kyivpost.com/business/uia-launch-new-flights-within-five-years.html

 

[Scottie Dog]

Interesting rumour, on a certain Spotters Facebook page, that SQ are talking of going up to 4 flights per day. Apparently ATL and MCO have been mentioned. Presumably that would be 2 return flights generating 4 movements per day.

 

[David_itl]

Not to sure what the point would be with them going to MCO as they already codeshare with Virgin on that route and I hardly think MCO is high up on the "must serve" agendas. The more interesting move would be if they do enact another route instead for which I believe staff have already been sent on training days for the equipment to be used.

 

[Scottie Dog]

Not to sure what the point would be with them going to MCO as they already codeshare with Virgin on that route and I hardly think MCO is high up on the "must serve" agendas. The more interesting move would be if they do enact another route instead for which I believe staff have already been sent on training days for the equipment to be used.

Are you hinting at Manchester having a 2nd regular "whale" operator?

 

[David_itl]

May be. Whether this will still go ahead is something I would question with aviation bilaterals being in a state of flux. But if l was being honest, I would imagine a downgauge in the expected equipment on the route with SQ planning on non-stop services to that city.

 

[Land23R]

Intriguing David. When you say 'downguage' in equipment, do you mean from the A359 used on IAH-SIN (only 253 seats I think), or from the a/c type you'd heard was being considered for this mystery route?

 

[David_itl]

It's on the mystery route! Still a fair way off from the route starting (next year at the earliest) so plenty of time for the them to decide on the status quo.

 

[User002]

As User001 is unable to post to this group, he is now saying.
No Easyjet expansion this summer. Pushed back to 2019 as this will help T1 from becoming overcrowded. More Jet2 will move to T2 next summer and this will enable Easyjet growth.

 

[EGCC_MAN]

Pushed back to 2019 as this will help T1 from becoming overcrowded.

Hmmm. Well I'm sure MAG will be eternally grateful to EasyJet for being so considerate. How selfish it is when those dastardly airlines insist on basing additional aircraft at MAN. Don't they realise that it just makes the terminals busy ... I mean, who wants that? Surely not the extra employees who will not now be needed, the retailers and caterers whose takings won't increase, or MAG who will pass on lower dividends to the local councils. Of course, MAG did offer EasyJet space in T2 which will process fewer pax in 2018 than it did last year. But, out of the kindness of their hearts, EasyJet declined to put MAN under such pressure in that terminal as well. Such a considerate airline they are, putting MAN's pressing need not to grow ahead of their own interests. Thanks, EasyJet!

 

[IanFarquharson]

Primera from Liverpool or Manchester ?
Their latest video showing a new UK departure point and new routes to US
But just dots on the map

 

[mullion]

Hmm not Boston I hope or New York but could see they might do a deal with MAG
as LPL perhaps bit too small but you never know especially with Primera

 

[Jerry]

Maybe it's Blackpool?

 

[Aceshigh]

Personally I would rather Primera stayed away given the Birmingham shambles.

 

[Sherburnflyer92]

As User001 is unable to post to this group, he is now saying.
No Easyjet expansion this summer. Pushed back to 2019 as this will help T1 from becoming overcrowded. More Jet2 will move to T2 next summer and this will enable Easyjet growth.

Wheres the source of this?

It appears to me that the easyJet expansion wasn't put on hold due to T1 but rather easyJet not wanting to bite more then it can chew - they were offered, like Jet2, space in T2.

Also it appears that Jet2 have been earmarked as the carrier to move from T1 into T2 thus making the transition into one terminal easier for MAG group. I don't expect it to be a huge amount of routes but rather the 'volume' routes. If the rumoured 2nd A330 is true for next year it probably will be the destinations that the A330 serves alongside one other.

 

[David_itl]

With MAN-India meant to be the 6th biggest market in Europe, i would say its sooner rather than later for someone to start up.

Following up on this, I forgot about MAN-BOM having once been anna.aero's unserved route of the week

> “Manchester is Europe’s largest unserved market to/from Mumbai,” states Robert Smith, Head of Aviation Development at Manchester Airport. “In fact the airport is second only to Heathrow in terms of total O&D traffic for UK to India.”

> “In total O&D traffic, Manchester-Mumbai ranks third behind Heathrow and Paris CDG, and way ahead of several routes that have direct services, e.g. Frankfurt, Munich, Brussels, Amsterdam, Zurich and Istanbul,” concludes Smith.

> “Excluding Sydney [which cannot be reached in one sector], Mumbai is the second largest unserved market from Manchester [Bangkok being the biggest],” confirms Smith. In 2016, the market witnessed 74,000 indirect passengers, plus 73,000 surface leakage to Mumbai from Manchester’s two-hour catchment area (IATA Airport IS and CAA Survey 2016).

> the top three connecting options chosen by those passengers who did book travel between Manchester and Mumbai in the past year indicates that the majority of connecting travellers used Abu Dhabi (30%) Dubai (29%) and Heathrow (13%). When looking at the traffic flows in the opposite direction, the top three remain unchanged, however fourth spot is taken this time by Jeddah, leaping ahead of Doha, when considering Mumbai-Manchester transit traffic

So... who wants to break the news to Jet Arways that they seem to serve airports with less robust numbers than at least 1 regional UK airport!


http://www.anna.aero/2017/04/12/manchester-mumbai-is-skyscanner-unserved-route-of-the-week/

 

[David_itl]

And going onto a general them once again. I found a presentation by Adam Jupp of MAN which I don't think we've seen before. It's from 2016, The bit about investing in rail infrastructure and APD holidays throws up these tantalising possibilities
Unserved routes:
Shanghai, Tokyo, Delhi, Mumbai, Lagos, Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur, Manila, Phuket, Colombo, Amritsar, Perth, Tampa, Maldives, Dallas, Sao Paulo, Seoul, Dhaka, Riyadh, Denver, Guangzhou

Frequency increases
Beijing, Hong Kong, Boston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Vancouver, Miami, Jeddah, Lahore, Las Vegas, Singapore, Miami, Toronto, Chicago, Washington

Note: Addis Ababa isn't there so you wonder where the Evening News got it's info from when they listed it as one we may have links to.

https://mediafiles.thedms.co.uk/Publication/YK/cms/pdf/Adam Jupp slides.pdf

 

[Scottie Dog]

An excellent couple of posts - thank you David for finding the files.

 

[David_itl]

Cheers Scottie. Just doing my research on MAN-Tokyo seeing that ANA may be on European expansion mode... not found any figures so far.

 

[Land23R]

Just going back to the easyjet situation mentioned by EGCC_MAN and Sherburnflyer92 in their recent very good posts:
It does seem apparent that for whatever reason, easyjet were not prepared to split terminal operations in the way Jet2 has if they were serious about expansion. However, the capacity issue at T1 may, in my view, be a bit of a smokescreen. As I understand it, Jet2 will have 2 additional a/c flying from MAN this summer (even if there are other spare a/c based here). TCX have scaled back their growth apparently but even if there is 1 extra based, that's a total of 3 more based from those 2 airlines. Against that, it's said that Jet2 will move 4 of their a/c to T2. If easyjet have zero expansion with no more than 12 based in peak summer, that suggests overall in T1 there will be 1 less based a/c.
Bearing in mind that MAN have somehow found a way to agree to Ryanair putting an extra 3 a/c into the stretched T3 at peak periods, it seems inconceivable that they wouldn't have been prepared to allow easyjet at least the one additional a/c in T1 that was supposedly already planned.

Two things to put this in context:
It's not simply a case of one of MAN's biggest customers deciding not to expand in a normal summer. MAN has lost a significant amount of capacity and 9 based a/c with the demise of MON since summer 17 so opportunities exist.
Secondly, it's not as if easyjet are not expanding at other UK airports. For example, it's been reported on this or another forum that a competitor airport 30 miles to the west sees an extra based a/c, 3 new routes and higher frequencies with a 19% increase in seats because of more A320s.

Only a few could have been anticipating the additional 8 based reported in the initial slot requests or even the reduced figure of 6 perhaps. Nevertheless, those of us who traditionally are of the glass half empty variety had reasonable hopes of seeing a base of 15 easyjet a/c.
To apparently not even get a 13th is very bad news.

Whatever issues were at play here, it is to be hoped they all get resolved, and quickly. If Jet 2 move more a/c to T2 in S19, then T1 capacity should not be a problem anyway.

Have to say I was very surprised at the remarkably muted reaction on that other forum. Bad news is bad news and little point in dressing it up as something else. Fortunately, Ryanair's growth is good news and extremely welcome, as is that of Jet2.

 

[Jerry]

I think it depends on when they planned the expansion at the other bases. They were probably planned long before Monarchs demise so things like extra aircraft may have been assigned already. With the demise of both Air Berlin and Monarch Easyjet may well have had to prioritise and have chosen getting a stronger foothold in the German market and used up all their resources there. They probably just don't have the aircraft for expansion at MAN for this year.