Manchester to London sectors

[Robmillo]

Can anyone tell me why there are so few available sectors to London from Manchester? The only way of getting to the capital from the airport is by BA or BMi who fly to LHR or LGW, which is okay, but limited.

What I don't understand is that there are 3 other airports, Luton, Stanstead and London City which should be cheaper to fly to than the other two, but no-one flies direct to them. I would have to fly via Amsterdam, Brussels or the Isle of Man in order to reach LCY, which is of absolutely no use.

Surely someone like BA, now that they are taking over British Regional, should introduce some extra routes into London, or do airlines believe the load factors would be too low to make a profitable sector?

Cheers

[G-BPEC]

Rob,

Until recently KLM uk had a Fokker 50 service from Manchester to London City direct, but this was dropped last year because it wasn't popular enough. As for Stansted, the British Regional service is still going strong, the route has been upgraded to an Embraer aircraft, and I can't be 100% sure but I think they have increased the frequency for the summer. BA and BMI are of course by far the most popular, with BA's loads exceeding 100 almost every day. What we need here at Manchester is an easyjet service to Luton- that'd annoy Liverpool no end :) only kidding!!!

G-BPEC

[Robmillo]

G-EC,

Cheers for replying. I had a little look-see at what British Regional had to offer, and they do fly to Stanstead as you say, but I couldn't find a flight on weekends, and their Monday service was pretty rubbish - only one flight in the evening, about 18:30ish.

Obviously BA and BMI are very popular, but for a student, they're expensive! The LPL-LTN EasyJet service was amazing, and its a great pity that Barclays have caused the end to that service by hiking up landing fees at Luton.

Its just so hard to believe that in order to get to the South East of England from the North West, where there are two huge cities, you have to fly on a major airline out of Manchester.

Shame.

[Shanwick Shanwick]

The change from an ATP to an Embraer on the MAN - STN route is hardly an "upgrade". There is now reduced capacity and the sector time is only 5 mins shorter!

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[160to4DME]

ShanwickShanwick

The Stansted service was mainly served by a 29 seat J41.
Therefore, the change to the Barbie Jet is infact an upgrade to the route, which has been reflected in load factors which have gone from an average of 22 on the J41, to 46 on the 145.
Passengers prefer 2 sucks to 2 screws :)

Regards

[G-BPEC]

160to4,

Is there a site where I can get the average load factors for the various routes?

Thanks
BPEC

[chiglet]

160
The EGSS service whilst "nominally" a J41, was often changed to a Ba46, or a BATP. So a Barbie is the middle ground