Archive Route Development & Rumours

[User001]

The ELAL flights will be run by their Sun’dor division, hence the LY5*** flight number.

 

[rutamkrd]

They are charter flights then because the flexible fares division is UP.

Sun d’orr use two pretty cramped 738s in all economy.

 

[User001]

These are quasi-charters but seat only can be brought at a reasonable price.

If it gets a foot in the door for a ELAL mainline, bring it on.

 

[jfy1999]

EgyptAir

I posted about this before but it seems to have gone under the radar. According to a post on airliners.net there are rumours of EgyptAir starting a Luxor-Manchester route circulating among hoteliers in Luxor.

Anyone heard anything more about this (or Cairo)?

 

[rutamkrd]

Not disputed that how they started previously also with the Sun d Orr brand indeed think the original flights were LY5217 / 5218 and through it started with weekly a 747 shared with Gatwick it settled to a 707 sans titles for several years before going two weekly scheduled with mainline 767/757 via an intermediate Mainland European city.

Why come back with the charter brand again what with UK/EU - Israel openskys just seems a little lacklustre

Certainly this won’t put any pressure on Easy or indeed much of the local authodox community who will continue to travel via elsewhere (Frankfurt and Zurich)imho.

UP would have been more appropriate for this market imho.

 

[User001]

It isn’t lacklustre when you consider the majority of seats are likely to be inbound TLV-MAN-TLV rather than outbound MAN-TLV-MAN.

Building a stronger inbound market will be crucial to keeping a strong market force in these uncertain times.

 

[User001]

EgyptAir

I posted about this before but it seems to have gone under the radar. According to a post on airliners.net there are rumours of EgyptAir starting a Luxor-Manchester route circulating among hoteliers in Luxor.

Anyone heard anything more about this (or Cairo)?

I did see it but these rumours seem to surface all the time. Over winter the same ‘hoteliers’ claimed that Air Cairo were to start Luxor 1 weekly, but never materialised.

 

[User001]

In a financial request one one of its tenders dated Nov 2017, Biman has again reiterated it plans to open several routes including Manchester.

 

[User001]

Air Arabia has a curious board at Manchester T1.

‘Flying you from Manchester to Agadir, with more routes to come’.

No other context on that board as to what they meant, but I thought it was interesting anyway.

 

[David_itl]

Looking at the Maroc division, the best known places are Fez and particularly Tangier as well as Casablanca The Egypt division goes from Alexandria but maybe do split ops e.g on Monday Alexandria-MAN-Luxor with Thursday Luxor-MAN-Alexandria. The Jordan division isnt licensed for scheduled ops i believe

 

[User001]

Shame that their main base of Sharjah is out of reach from the U.K. could be a good alternative route to have,

 

[ethanegcc]

I would suggest Fez or Tangier are good options and would face no competition from Manchester.

 

[David_itl]

Just read they have 6 A321NEOLRs on order from 2019 'for longer range routes'.

 

[Dobbo]

I'll try and round up the current/ongoing rumours (some of which have more substance than others), starting with long haul and moving to short haul:

• SpiceJet: possible daily DEL-MAN, B77W
• Oman Air: possibly second daily, and/or B787 equipment change.
• Qatar: possible increase in weekly rotations to 18 (have previously seen filing for triple daily).
• Kuwait: KWI-MAN-[USA?]
• Saudia: Riyadh year round.
• Cathay Pacific: possible 4x weekly evening departure ex-MAN.
• TCX: possible new winter seasonal route to Cape Town, possible new routes to North America and the Caribbean.
• Biman: Dhaka-MAN-NYC
• Hainan: possible route to Guangzhou (likely seasonal).
• Probability of other Chinese or far east routes? Air China, Thai...
• United: use of wide body EWR-MAN in summer peak.

Short Haul

• EasyJet: possible massive increase in based aircraft, up to 20(!) new routes, increased frequency on existing routes.
• Jet2: increase in based aircraft, new A332, possible long haul entry?
• Ryanair: increase in based aircraft at T3.
• Croatian: possible 2/3x weekly service from Split.
• ElAl: 2x weekly Tel aviv (not mainline).
• LOT: double daily WAW-MAN.

 

[User001]

Don’t forget:

-Air Baltic to Tallinn 2 weekly.
-Flybe to Bordeaux (at last)
-Tunisair to Monastir.
-Possible new Air Arabia routes.

 

[Dobbo]

I was certain I'd forgotten some!

 

[ethanegcc]

I just can't help but think it seems to be getting awfully close to the start of the summer season and hardly any announcements on any of the above yet.

 

[Dobbo]

I just can't help but think it seems to be getting awfully close to the start of the summer season and hardly any announcements on any of the above yet.

I think that's a fair comment, but if you look at a June start rather than a March start (which seems more likely for most of the above if they happen) early 2018 is about right.

 

[User001]

Don’t worry.

Some of the routes were April/May and June starts. Usually the summer season gets finalised in January anyway as it gives the airlines enough time to implement plans after the slot conferences.

 

[Chilly Dog]

• Cathay Pacific: possible 4x weekly evening departure ex-MAN

This is now cancelled/postponed. From a friend - certainly not in 2018.

Also sadly LO not happening to WAW, according to a partner carrier.

On the plus side I saw a discussion doc that included a Star lounge at MAN, and one of the supporting carriers would be a nice boost for MAN!

Also, Scoot still pushing for India to MAN.