Well, I guess when JP is talking about the “challenge” of clawing back from MAN, this article in the Yorkshire Post yesterday is a indication of what he is up against.
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AIRLINE Lufthansa has no plans in the short-term to launch flights from any of Yorkshire's airports, one of its senior executives has revealed. Marianne Sammann, general manager for Lufthansa in the UK and Ireland, said the group did not want to "spread itself too thinly" by starting services in Yorkshire. But, speaking to the Yorkshire Post during a visit to the region, Mrs Sammann said Lufthansa had not ruled out the move completely and would keep an open mind when considering airports in Yorkshire, including Leeds Bradford and Robin Hood Doncaster Sheffield, for new destinations in the future. Mrs Sammann said Lufthansa had 55,000 frequent flyers from Yorkshire which regularly used its services, including business owners. Lufthansa flies from Manchester and Newcastle airports. It recently doubled the number of flights between Newcastle and Dusseldorf in Germany. The revised Newcastle service is part of Lufthansa's on-going investment and route network development through Dusseldorf. Mrs Sammann says Lufthansa is also aware of the importance of flights to India, to which passengers from Yorkshire begin their journey with Lufthansa from Manchester. "Thirty-six per cent of the total UK passengers going to India are coming through Manchester," she said.
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One wonders how much traffic is lost to MAN that is actually only travelling out of there on connecting flights via UK, European or international transit points. The LBA offering in terms of connections into hub airports has got worse rather than better over the last few years, when it has been a growth area in general elsewhere in the UK regions. Presumably correcting this has to be a key part of the route development strategy alluded to in the press article earlier this week. Given the proposed increases in charges at LHR and the imminent arrival of open skies are two further nails in the coffin of LBA-LHR, it might be a case that the first step on the journey is a backward one!