Isn’t that the point of a group approach? You develop synergies which deliver cost savings? If a group gets too monopolistic then the government steps in to manage that situation. That is what happened with the BAA. How small would you believe a group has to be to not be creating a monopoly? Whilst I am no financier, I have said before I presume that the local councils (who are in effect about 50% of the business owners) must be broadly happy with business approach and the returns they see in “normal times” or they wouldn’t continue to back MAG. MAN and the many on site third parties employ many of their residents whilst the other MAG airports and subsidiary companies provide a return that usually helps offset council tax bills.
Interestingly, in spite of the breakup of the BAA, I haven’t seen LHR expanding into full freighter beyond the limited quantity they already had. I appreciate they did do so for a short period at the early part of C-19 but it is not a long-term change of strategy as far as I can tell. So it doesn’t necessarily follow that MAN would suddenly launch back into freight just because they didn’t own EMA.
Whilst the breakup saw LGW, STN, LTN, LCY and SEN fight for different portions of the passenger market, the freight market in the south east appears to have changed little. I would suspect the most significant redistribution of the freight market here may have been the closure of Manston some years back.
Now you might argue that having other airport interests dilutes the focus on MAN and I wouldn’t disagree that it could however the fact that the councils collectively wish to protect their residents (e.g. votes!) is likely to see MAN interests being at the forefront of decision making. Indeed you can see that Manchester transformation has continued while Stansted transformation appears to have slowed if not stopped altogether.
I read recently that 90% of the UK’s population is within 4 hours travel time of EMA which is possibly why many of the logistics providers like it. DSA must have similar ratios and I understand your point regarding competitor airports but would you really advocate MAG landing that business at any cost?
We can at least agree that there are two distinct categories! Ultimately, we don’t have the numbers but I would like to believe that those who do, look at what is in the best interests of the group because ultimately that is likely to be in the best interests of the long term future of MAN, it’s employees and the wider community.