Originally Posted by
Asturias56
"It's what the north of England wants, not just Manchester and it's both."
depends where you are in the "north" - getting to Manchester Airport from the NE or even Leeds is a serious pain
Inclusive and package holiday flights are embedded within the Core DNA that is Manchester Airport and almost from the day that Ringway opened for business and even more from the late sixties to the present day.
Much, indeed most of the development has and remains powered and referenced by this business model. Terminal buildings, R2 and retail in no particular order.
Pier C was built out to accommodate the 747 and DC10s used by certain Canadian and one truly innovative UK carrier of the era.
Britannia brought 767 to inter European charters and Airtours were a leading tour company and both would develop into the long haul opening Caribbean and even South East Asian destinations in their later iterations
This history can not and must not be thrown out with the bathwater and certainly not to appease a few tens of thousands to the leeward side of the city region. Not sorry if some sensibilities are upset by that !
Equally and parallel through the eighties the Airport management were front and centre in battles with the CAA in the pursuit of liberalisation of the archaic bilateral conditions that prevented many/any long haul services at all outside of Heathrow and Prestwick !
Particular mention and call out to Singapore here . American were also a pioneer introducing the MD11 as were Delta in the day (through both have since largely fallen into the alliance consolidation previously referenced sure enough )
Using comparable Düsseldorf neither has the luxury of a resident hub and spoke carrier; through both are significant spokes in the global systems
As a commercial imperative both have and demand an equally balanced approach including delivery and management of a mixed profile of services.
And a further similarity both miss calculated the premier phase of the growth of low and flexible fare carriers; they were still in big airline mode !
Laterally both addressed that and regrettably the neighbouring small airports certainly had a temporary hit .
Just as the big airlines and alliances had a few years earlier consolidation would be the inevitable consequence especially at EasyJet and that process continues to this day.