Originally Posted by
rog747
Originally Posted by VLCfkight
Liverpool-based Arrowsmith Holidays, used to operate programmes from both Liverpool and Manchester using mostly Laker and Cambrian Airways aircraft...
However, that was in the days before multiple motorway routes between Merseyside and Manchester, which now make the latter's airport only about an hour's drive. It's even more pronounced from the Wirral side. Liverpool airport's poor (non-existent) motorway links are a significant part. Although you can see the Welsh hills to the west from Liverpool's control tower, Manchester, to the east, is actually much quicker to get to from there than Liverpool.
By the mid-1980s (after Laker and Cambrian's time), when this road network was mostly complete, there was so little traffic at Liverpool that I was quite surprised the airport was not closed down for good.
Originally Posted by
ATNotts
But what you're missing is the potential for taking business away from TUI which given that the overall market is finite is important if Jet2 wants to maintain their position as the largest tour operator in UK.
Philip Meeson has kept Jet2 in good financial position by going for financially worthwhile markets and growth with a competent product, and not indulging in willy-waving "I'm bigger than you are" over-expansion into marginal markets.