I am the poster from the other forum. I agree with all your points made. I don’t think this is necessarily an issue with solely the routes team, as proof is in the pudding - they went out to China to try and convince Hainan to restore the full daily schedule and exactly that happened (I would imagine they also met with China Eastern & Juneyao as both carriers purportedly aspire to launch Shanghai). What I was told is that relationships with a number of airlines (whether ‘a lot’ may be an exaggeration - not sure of the exact number) were peeved off around Covid time. I think it’s mainly an issue of MAN simply not putting the effort in to repair these relationships / forge new ones since Covid.
The ‘failure’ to woo over United and especially Air India within the last 18 months is quite surprising, honestly. I don’t think it’s an issue of MAN having no pull - I think it’s an issue of not actively pursuing services as may have been done in the past. EDI have been a model example as they have done remarkably well especially going East.
Given the known success of the recent China trip., I think trips to the US and India should be arranged asap.
I must however state that the extent of these supposed issues may not be as widespread as I hear ‘through the grapevine’ and I have only heard specific details about United - but the apparent consensus is that certainly a few airlines have had a break down in relations with the airport, however given the ‘underperformances’ of the last few years I can believe such a claim.
I have requested for the original posts to be removed, as they were poorly worded and could potentially be misleading if what was posted is not 100%
Last edited by laviation; 18th Nov 2023 at 15:51.