Originally Posted by
golf yankee one one
I was interested to read the Ethiopian numbers from Trav a la a few days ago. Whilst at first sight they don't look too great, this is initially a BRU and MAN service so hopefully it is viable and will steadily grow until the BRU stop can be eliminated.
Personally I feel that this is possibly the most important new route for MAN recently; although ADD/ Ethiopia are not major destinations the ET service opens up the whole continent of Africa. If the service succeeds, ET could become the preferred way to reach South Africa, Kenya, Tanzania, Botswana, Namibia, Indian Ocean islands and a host of other cities.
I have recently returned from a journey which involved 8 sectors on ET (sadly before MAN started); all were on time, the planes and the staff seemed professional and friendly, and a snack or meal was served on every leg except for a 25 minute hop. I would recommend anyone to try them.
Finally, Trav a la, please publish some more figures for their loads as time goes by.
Assuming that in Tra Va La's figures, the right-hand most column is outbound from Manchester, it looks like over those selected dates the plane was approximately a bit less than half full leaving Manchester (seat guru said about 280 seats, but the distribution of passenger numbers between economy and business is unknown). Leaving half to be mopped up at Brussels, which doesn't seem too surprising. If this was direct it would be more concerning. The inbound figures are more concerning, though perhaps not surprising.