Originally Posted by
MANFAN
This then explains why two of my flights I had booked for April & May have been bought forward from arriving around 23:00 to now arriving around 16:30…however, I have opted for a refund as the transfer time in Munich went from 2hrs to 40mins!
A shame they have had to cut this particular flight, I would have thought one of their daytime flights could have been cut instead…that last flight of the day comes in pretty handy! Loads were always mostly full when I flew as well (usually twice a month).
The problem is the cuts are believed to be due to crew shortages and the Manchester and BHX night-stops crew probably take out the following day tea-time flight (could be mid morning flight) and that is 6 crew out for 18 hours plus hotel costs so it sort of makes commercial sense as it ticks two boxes (night-stop costs and crew availability) but of course it them restricts passenger choice due to layover times as highlighted above and risks giving money to the competition. However KLM and Air France group have their own issues.
At least Star Alliance at Manchester have Brussels Airlines, Swiss, Austrian and SAS as potential alternatives depending on the desired end destination.
Pete