Originally Posted by
Rutan16
Dullas is overwhelming dominated by United and A* partners and affiliates ( even Aer Lingus remain wedded to UA on this route sector !).
Problem is for Manchester many much and most of the UA connecting traffic from and to our area just seems better suited to the beyond services offered out of Newark today.
Back Washington if United can’t make it work standing alone of the Newark operation I am struggling to see anyone else making work in the near future.
Indeed. I was a regular on the UA100/101 MAN-IAD and it was great whilst it lasted. Business always seemed pretty full when I used it but then again - only 16 seats in the 757. Poking my head round the curtain to look at the back end, there were always empty seats. But I guess the main thing was when you deplane at IAD, the transit traffic goes one way and the P2P traffic goes another way. The transit traffic was always in the majority meaning that the actual MAN-IAD traffic wasn't great. Worse still the transit traffic can go via anywhere with anyone and usually goes with the cheapest price; and these days with so many non-stop alternatives there is probably less transit traffic too.
These days my MAN to Washington trips are either through EWR and take a leisurely train down to Union Station if I have the luxury of time...it's quite a nice trip and you end up in the centre of DC....Last time I flew to JFK with TCX - put MAN-IAD in to their booking system and they sold me a great connection to Dulles with Jet Blue (a great airline) at a compelling price. The connection was a doddle and the connecting flight 45-50 mins. Only problem I have doing that with TCX is for long haul I won't do economy and some of their flights are all economy.
I can't see a direct MAN-IAD again in the forseeable future sadly.