Originally Posted by
AlwaysWatching1
I'm struggling as to why this has turned into an "anti Manchester" sentiment where followers of other airports seem to think that Mancunians feel they have entitlement ?
I certainly don't.
If airline A wishes to fly from airport X good luck to them, it's a commercial decision. BUT has Merseyside suddenly been identified as a brand new catchment area containing 000s of potential new travellers who have never flown before, doubtful ?
When one of your largest customers and one the of biggest airlines at Manchester creates a new base (just 21 miles away as the crow flies ), you have to look at the economic justification. I personally happen to believe that it's not market driven based on growth within Merseyside but slot availability and in turn that is down to stand capacity, at MAN ,the trouble is with no end in sight in terms of the work in progress one wonders if this is the thin edge of the wedge ? It's been said that the Manchester market is primarily old skool bucket and spade beach destinations, it's certainly a significant slug of the business so what happens if RYR, EZY, or TUI who primarily serve such markets want to expand at Manchester but feel constricted, is Liverpool now the default position ?
Another respondee suggested "where do you expect to build the stand capacity" and I agree. Manchester is now totally boxed in but who had overarching management of the masterplan ?
The same CEO has been here 10+ years. Could they not have built the transit sheds on the far side of the A538 and demolished the area known as the World freight village. Average throughput is down to 200te a day, ok its not an exact science but in context it equates to the equivalent of 4 HGVs a day.
Rutan mentioned SIA and AA, carriers that were championed by Sir Gil Thompson, he was someone who had a vision as to what Manchester could become and was not afraid to invest to make Manchester a major gateway. Of course the £1bn spend on the terminal is welcome but my point remains you have to have the supporting infrastructure to support the terminals throughput and its only my view but I feel there has been no provision to compensate for that failing whilst the work takes place.
(btw MANFAN If you are going to enter into meaningful debate with the grown ups, please ensure you get your facts right first).
I do understand some of your current reticence to be honest with some equally important caveats including the regrettable fact that a considerable element of the pressure from the commercial institutional investors and inevitable cost management that may have not existed in prior decades that said the last two and half years has severely impacted the finances.
The issue with concrete through was certainly discussed here and other places years ago .
What do now and when is a debate for sure that said the loss of those two carriers “may” have provided some breathing space and I suspect the relatively quiet development team are aware of this as well.
The lack of parking particularly in overnight and early morning certainly has had impacts especially pricing out all freighter services and some switch selling to East Midlands for which they have had the their knuckles slapped by regulators
Driving up capacity via larger aircraft on similar frequencies is a tried and tested philosophy in the industry (caveat BA that went in the opposite direction!)
Better management of the field operations should also increase throughput (least from the operational point of view- can’t speak for the slave drivers , sorry handlers though)
I am of the opinion 32million through the terminals should be achievable within 4 to 5 years within the current infrastructure, however above that does become an issue agreed
I don’t agree with you that the Jet2 decision is necessarily driven by constraints at Manchester but more rather level headed business decisions at HQ and their revenue bean counters market appraisals to be honest.
As another said I generally agree with sentiments and views that EasyJet will be put under pressure through that’s for another place
Off the cuff at least T2x actually opened intime and close to budget unlike a certain German airport rebuild
And finally another point on the “sharing the love” theme , as I am in Nantes right now, the French regional towns followed something similar with a million twin jet and hop flights to Orly to appease the local conseil municipal communes and floppy hatted mayors resulting a bucket load on tiny airports with millions of euro in debt.
Rather than a policy of fewer more effective larger airports across the country
The over capacity is magnified over here!
Even Nantes sort of underperforms on many levels beyond flights across the bay and to the Maghreb again another debate through