We have got ever so slightly off track here and once again degenerated into a debate about BA !
Surely BA (..and to a lesser extent BMI), cannot be blamed for centralising on Heathrow , it is a cash cow, a simple case of economics and there are now at least a sprinkling of other options to avoid BA if you so wish.
Criticism is however totally justified when one considers the numerous number of licence objections that BA objected to in the 70s,80s, 90s. Whilst it “might” seem ridiculous to be looking that far back, it could be argued that that preventing the free market from operating at that time has led to the dominance of Heathrow now ! We will never know.
If this rumour is true and I suspect as I indicated that it is just spin, it does raise a number of other questions. Is the airport now desparate and belatedly embarking on a new strategy which is more about raising the profile of the debate on a 3rd runway at Heathrow, this would play well into that argument that Manchester maybe more than other airports has much more to lose.
A few years back Manchester saw itself as best placed to exploit the demand for any “additional” expansion of service out the South East, by exploiting both its own demand AND also some of that which that originated in the regions,with changes in aircraft technology and airline strategy we now have seen a remarkable shift, as well as the increase in European feed we now even have regional long haul hubbing from airports such as Bristol to Newark and even Newcastle to Dubai. Who could have predicted that a few years back ?
In effect CO and EK have changed the rules of the game. The re-distribution of market share and the dynamics of the market have changed.
That leaves Manchester with a problem, they invested very heavily in a second runway before these dynamics came into play, at a time when they saw themselves rightly or wrongly as the only major player outside of the South East. When capacity was at some stage almost certainly going to reach saturation Manchester felt that it would finally reach full potential.
There is little doubt therefore that the airport management are very worried indeed, Manchester appears to have suffered more proportionally in the current downturn than other UK airports, but not only have they seen a decline of numbers they are witnessing a major shift of strategy, whereas pax at say Birmingham might ebb and flo based on the economy, the decline of traffic at Manchester is more fundamental. With the introduction of the BMI network they at last saw a major challenge to BAs dominance and an opportunity to partner with an airline that would eventually expand and create a major worldwide network from the North of England, that has now evaporated !
If this rumour is true a ”possible threat” to potentially cut off the 3m pax from Manchester who are currently contributing to demands for additional capacity at Heathrow , “might “in the eyes of the airport management ( and I only say “might”), play well with regional MPS and the media in the same way that forces were mobilised in the 80s, when the airport was fighting for access by SIA and AA and latterly the expansion of Stansted.