Archive Route Development & Rumours

[jfy1999]

Have Jet Airways started flights yet? I can see flight 9W126 on the FR24 arrivals board for MAN but the flight status is "unknown".

 

[Scottie Dog]

It doesn't start until next Monday - 5th November.

 

[BlueManc]

I'm going to generate a rumour....

There was a rumour that SpiceJet were considering serving Manchester and today, or in the near future, they are using Manchester for 737Max delivery fuel stops (credit Alphafive).

So, is it part of a plan? There's many other alternatives for some Jet A-1?

 

[David_itl]

Thought it would be semi interesting to see the codeshares in place for some of our routes as potentially a long-term pointer for new airlines and routes:

06:40 EY15 Etihad Airways
06:40 9W6387 Jet Airways
06:40 GA9050 Garuda Indonesia
06:40 HM5014 Air Seychelles
06:40 HX1015 Hong Kong Airlines
06:40 MH5537 Malaysia Airlines
06:40 NZ4285 Air New Zealand
06:40 UL2315 SriLankan Airlines
06:40 VA7015 Virgin Australia
06:40 XY3015 Flynas

06:00 QR21 Qatar Airways
06:00 BA2891 British Airways
06:00 UL3521 SriLankan Airlines

07:15 UA81 United Airlines
07:15 AC5844 Air Canada
07:15 LH7634 Lufthansa
07:15 LX3075 Swiss

07:55 AF1668 Air France
07:55 9W6748 Jet Airways
07:55 BE3120 Flybe
07:55 CZ7183 China Southern Airlines
07:55 DL8448 Delta Air Lines
07:55 KE6393 Korean Air
07:55 KQ3226 Kenya Airways
07:55 MK9436 Air Mauritius
07:55 MU8641 China Eastern Airlines
07:55 SU3039 Aeroflot
07:55 UU8668 Air Austral

09:55 KL1081 KLM
09:55 9W8604 Jet Airways
09:55 BT6011 Air Baltic
09:55 CZ7875 China Southern Airlines
09:55 DL9363 Delta Air Lines
09:55 G38628 GOL Linhas Aereas
09:55 GA9474 Garuda Indonesia
09:55 JU8650 AirSERBIA
09:55 KQ1081 Kenya Airways
09:55 MF9307 Xiamen Air
09:55 MU6229 China Eastern Airlines
09:55 SU3209 Aeroflot
09:55 WX6013 Cityjet

09:15 AY1361 Finnair
09:15 AA9014 American Airlines
09:15 BA6003 British Airways
09:15 CX1480 Cathay Pacific

I find it strange that SriLankan is using both Etihad and Qatar to transport their passengers onwards as you'd normally find an agreement with one airline/grouping over another rather than pick competitors. With the launch of Jet Airway's flights, I wonder if there may be a temptation for them to drop the AF/KL codshare and focus in on the VS tie-up otherwise it's running the risk of passengers not using the new route. The LH/LX codeshares on United is something I wasn't aware of so this may be them get the low-yield German/Swiss New York traveller onto the connecting routes (not oversure I'd be wanting an under 60 minute transfer though from T2 to T1).

 

[Scottie Dog]

Great comparison David - much appreciated.

 

[Jerry]

Out of that list who do you see as potential new airlines for MAN in the future?

 

[David_itl]

If I were to do it in order of likelihood:

Korean Air
Aeroflot
SriLankan Airlines

I'd love for Air Seychelles and Air Mauritius to resume their former services but it would probably be more geared for a B797 / A321LR appearing in their fleet and a change in philosophy in going back to the thin long-haul markets

The Chinese airlines I don't think will happen as MAN seems to be wedded to Hainan with Air China holding onto Shanghai rights that may be more useful for other airlines.

airBaltic got wiped out by Ryanair so I'd doubt they'd venture back
Garuda couldn't make London work so no chance for MAN
Malaysian is one that maybe long term could come back but they did make a mistake of leaping from 777s to 747s on the same frequency rather keep the 777 but boost frequency - . If Kuala Lumpur is what MAN wants then it's time for discussion with the likes of Air Asia.

 

[BlueManc]

So, El Al returns. Who else should reconsider their foolish decision to leave us?

Alitalia, Malaysian, Cubana, LOT, CSA, Aeroflot, Air Mauritius, Air Seychelles, Uzbekistan? Any others?

 

[Scottie Dog]

It seems that Lauda Motion (OE) will, (from Summer 2019), connect Manchester and Vienna 3 times per week on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday with times of 0700/0735z. The airline will operate into T1.

 

[Jerry]

Guessing thats from Vienna?

 

[Scottie Dog]

A year ago there was talk of Spicejet starting a service to Delhi with a B777 in S18.

Will they start in S19 with an A300-300, or will they just offer a one-way service with B737s on delivery?

 

[Scottie Dog]

I understand that Air Serbia are planning a scheduled service from Manchester to Belgrade from 2nd April.

If this goes ahead the flights will operate on Tuesday 0840/0925z and Friday 1620/1795z using A319 equipment.

 

[Silvercity]

I understand that Air Serbia are planning a scheduled service from Manchester to Belgrade from 2nd April.

If this goes ahead the flights will operate on Tuesday 0840/0925z and Friday 1620/1795z using A319 equipment.

There was an interesting article I read about this airline in a magazine recently . I hadn't realized that Air Serbia came from the old JAT, which was a pretty sizeable airline in Europe in its day. I flew with them one to Split, out on a Caravelle and back on a 727.

 

[Borneobob]

It’s nice to see Manchester picking up more and more new routes with existing and new airlines. Looking through the routes served by our airlines at the moment I was surprised to see that Easyjet don’t serve Ibiza?
What do people think about the chances of getting routes to Bucharest, Ljubljana, and other Eastern European destinations.
We seem to have picked up quite a lot of new Spanish destinations in the last year, making Spain pretty much covered apart from one or two places in the North of the country, and will Easyjet ever fly to Paris Orly, it is after all one of their bases.
There has been a bit of discussion on here regarding the lack of space on T1 and T3 perhaps holding back expansion by airlines such as FR and U2. Are there any plans to address this situation in the near future, or will the completion of the TP help to significantly free up gates at these terminals?
Also it’s been nice to see Ethiopian and Jet starting services recently, and I have seen reports of quite a few passengers making onward connections to the USA, so would it possible for a carrier to take advantage of onward PAX to Canada?
One last thing, what are the chances of a major destination in West Africa being served in the near future?
Looking forward to people’s thoughts.

 

[mullion]

As we Know Easyjet are on a major expansion at Manchester which is being aided by Jet2 moving to T2 in stages
West Africa is a bit a grey area as not many of the airlines are in a situation to be operating at all let alone expanding
i:e Kenya/ SAA/Arik are all on the verge of going out of business and ET/EY/UAE have it covered
Romania is well covered from LPL and it is unlikely that we will get much, the likes of Llublijana will probably be covered by
Easyjet and I think it has already been posted that Air Serbia are to start in summer.
Easy already fly to Paris from Manchester so probably not from both bases and as Air France nearly started last year and then dropped
it plus Vueling tried it in 2017 and it didn`t work.

 

[David_itl]

Though Eastern Europe is comprehensively covered out of Liverpool, it is Wizz Air and Blue Air dominated. Hence, there's no disincentive for easyJet to look at expanding to that region. i'll just look at primary wish list destinations for them.


Year round
Bucharest is the fairly obvious one. 23 years ago we did have Tarom and were amongst the initial batch of routes they sent a 737 to. 2 or 3 weekly
Kosice is another former route - wasn't it Sky Europe doing that? Loads seemed very reasonable from what I can remember. 2 weekly
Poznan 2 weekly

Summer routes
Ljubljana is currently served seasonally by Adria but looking at the frequency and type, it seems on the way out, though I have a feeling this is more of a scheduled charter. Would it really be so bad to lose Adria but gain a full season 1 to 2 weekly easyJet service instead?
Varna and/or Bourgas on 1 or 2 weekly basis

winter routes
Plovdiv weekly
Maribor weekly


For Africa, it will need to be a case of targetting one or 2 specific airlines. Egyptair is the one that springs to mind but they will need to get the frequency right. Operating 5 weekly may have been too much to start with. Pitch in at 3 weekly and maybe throw in a weekly service to Luxor in the summer. I can't see any point in looking for Kenya Airways at the moment now that we have Ethiopian in place and covering eastern and southern Africa. Which, therefore, means looking to the west.... so Nigeria in the only country that would have reasonable prospects in terms of having some kind of demand. Air Peace is meant to be the carrier that is in expansionist but as they don't serve London, I doubt we would be on the radar and that, pretty much, means there's no prospect of West Africa services so it's a case of routing through Brussels to connect to a range of services there.

 

[Ray Finkle]

For Africa, it will need to be a case of targetting one or 2 specific airlines. Egyptair is the one that springs to mind but they will need to get the frequency right. Operating 5 weekly may have been too much to start with. Pitch in at 3 weekly and maybe throw in a weekly service to Luxor in the summer. I can't see any point in looking for Kenya Airways at the moment now that we have Ethiopian in place and covering eastern and southern Africa. Which, therefore, means looking to the west.... so Nigeria in the only country that would have reasonable prospects in terms of having some kind of demand. Air Peace is meant to be the carrier that is in expansionist but as they don't serve London, I doubt we would be on the radar and that, pretty much, means there's no prospect of West Africa services so it's a case of routing through Brussels to connect to a range of services there.

Ethiopian have signed a deal to start a national carrier in Ghana with a new hub planned for Accra. The plans seem to being about starting flights to Germany and the UK, surely MAN must be in with a shout?

https://www.routesonline.com/news/2...iopian+plans+uk+and+germany+routes+from+ghana

 

[David_itl]

It is intriguing this came up during their route launch but I think ET will only focus on getting the Addis Ababa service delinked over the coming 12 to 18 months. Looking at Accra arrivals, Asky doesn't appear to have too great a network for connecting possibilities so they would need them to grow a bit more.

 

[Scottie Dog]

From Routesonline:

Virgin Atlantic in recent weeks filed additional changes to its winter 2019/20 operation from Manchester, effective from 27OCT19. Latest adjustment as follows.

Manchester – Atlanta eff 27OCT19 Boeing 747-400 operates 5 weekly flights, instead of previously filed 3 weekly
VS109 MAN1040 – 1450ATL 744 x24
VS110 ATL1800 – 0650+1MAN 744 x24

Manchester – New York JFK eff 27OCT19 A330-200 operates 7 weekly, instead of previously filed 3 weekly
VS127 MAN1300 – 1530JFK 332 D
VS128 JFK1855 – 0620+1MAN 332 D

 

[Yawner]

Nice to see some winter capacity increases. Would like to see BOS and LAX get some winter service too. This combined with UA 76? Ops could see AA squeezed to a seasonal PHL service on the downside.