Originally Posted by
N707ZS
Compare the cargo figures to see where the money is.
That's indeed very true, however the passenger side of the operation at EMA is undoubtedly underperforming.
Yes there's absolutely an ongoing trend of a shift, or consolidation towards the larger airports given their economy of scale and also as the low-cost carriers grow market share at the expense of regional, full service carriers who now concentrate on the likes of MAN and BHX, which historically the likes of LPL and EMA enjoyed almost a monopoly over. For that reason alone it's always going to be difficult for EMA to attract the passenger volume it did in 2007/8, at least for the foreseeable future.
However, the volumes that LPL and LBA are seeing vs 2019, which is comparatively quite strong, does raise some questions about EMA's current record. Especially considering the biggest gainer from DSA's domise probably was EMA with 3 additional based TUI airframes. There's no question that the cargo business is the economic driver for MAG, but it certainly does seem they are in effect somewhat neglecting the passenger growth potential at EMA.
MAG seem (understandably) very happy to focus the passenger growth at STN and MAN, though given that MAN-TP may have delivered a shiny new terminal, it's done very little so far in terms of actually adding any real capacity benefit. My beleif is that LBA, LPL and to some entent BHX are benefitting from that with Jet2 now at LPL and EasyJet with a based fleet at BHX. It's also noteworthy BOH, in percentage terms, has performed particularly well on a passenger perspective (Covid aside) since Regional and City Airports took over from MAG.