Originally Posted by
Rutan16
Sri Lanka
Resumption of Cairo
Nigeria
Kenya
Jordan
Lebanon
Qantas return with Dreamliner perhaps they do say Manchester is pretty profitable via the sandpit !
Malaysia
Year round Air Canada with a max
Iran
Bangladesh
Halifax or St John with Westjet
Additional China routes for sure
Less likely imho
Japan
Korea
Taiwan
anywhere in South America
any of the ex soviet stans
Vietnam
Indonesia
Just about all of those mentioned above are potentials in due course. Qantas would be nice but given that London is their only European destination these days (having once served several including MAN) I think they will have other priorities. New destinations are good but we need to see consolidation of existing routes, too. Looking at the mind-boggling capacity between London and New York I think MAN could ultimately sustain 5 or 6 daily flights against the 3 daily in 2018. The US West Coast has surely got to become year-round and daily to LAX / SFO. BOS, ORD, should surely be capable of daily year round service and perhaps MIA as a springboard into Central and S America.
As well as new and more frequent hub services I think we'll see TUi and Thomas Cook continue to add more exotic far flung beach destinations which Heathrow will never serve (what was that about the National interest, don't people need holidays as much as jobs? ha ha)
Few can now question MAN's role as the Global Gateway for the North. Heathrow can have its 3rd runway, its good for London and the South but not needed by the North, we've already got most places covered in one or two hops.