Manchester-2

[Suzeman]

Ah Mr Oz Born

How nice of you to be so concerned about cargo at MAN from so far away. This subject seems to flare up from time to time just like a certain virus undoubtedly will, so thank you for raising it yet again

The freight through-puts posted for MAN are for flown freight only; I'm sure you know that . And of course with your excellent knowledge of the industry and truck routes, you must know that the volume of freight actually passing through the World Freight Terminal sheds and being dealt with by the forwarding community has always been significantly higher than the flown freight figure. But that doesn't suit your narrative does it?

In the mid 2000s when flown cargo was at its peak, a survey estimated that there was at least 50% more freight being processed in the sheds than the total being flown in/out of MAN because of consolidations and trucking. If such a survey was carried out today under pre-coronavirus conditions, I have no idea what the figure would be but I would guess it would be the same or even higher nowadays .

So where does MAN generate all it's cargo income from?. There would be runway and ATC charges for all freighters, but as most cargo comes in the belly of pax aircraft, there is not a lot of revenue coming in this way and any sum would be a very small proportion of the overall. There is no throughput charge for freight and handling fees will go to the handling agents. The main source of cargo -related revenue will be via rents etc of the cargo buildings on the airport site.

So rather than having a rant about throughput, why not ask questions about whether the freight community in Manchester feel short changed by the facilities and services on offer bearing in mind the way the global business now operates?. Can they sustain their business and protect and offer jobs? What are the spin offs that having these businesses at MAN bring?

I perceive that your rant (and those of others on this subject) is really about being upset at not being able to willy-wave anymore. We were all used to Manchester producing top line figures and lots of different cargo tails when it was a single entity. It was certainly a source of local pride. Now it is part of a group and the global business has changed. But has that affected the viability of the freight forwarders and transit sheds businesses at the Airport? Has it affected the region in it's ability to import and export goods?

I don't know the answer and I suspect you don't either. We can all speculate, but I know there are some in the cargo industry at MAN on this board and maybe they can share their views.