Originally Posted by bermudatriangle
...perhaps now is the time to re-launch manchester airport.as the competition seems to be liverpools john lennon airport,with no frills operations the main source of revenue...
Though most of your post was unhelpful, bermudatriangle, I think you may be on to something. There is a reason BA/BMI can't make as much money outside London and that reason is that they are too expensive for most economy passengers and need to be cross-subsidised on Long Haul by business fares. It says something of BA and BMI's operating structure if they are too incompetent to turn a profit outside of the world's largest business centre (and please nobody bring up the fact that Heathrow is a hub, these two airlines are extremely dependent on London
based passengers).
The fact is that Jet2 and FlyBE can make a profit at Manchester because they offer what the public wants whereas BA/BMI are old airlines that offer the public what they "should" want. That mentality is now dead in Europe and it is why BA struggle to cope outside of their comfort zone. As a non-British person I have no pride in Manchester although it is a lovely city where I attend many meetings so this post is nothing to do with a pro-MAN bias.
To sum up what I am saying: yes BA/BMI pulled MAN because they couldn't make money but that isn't a fault with MAN and its passenger base, it's a fault with BA/BMI.
Low-cost is the future in Europe, why can't people embrace it as a fantastic commercial opportunity? Why whine for the legacy carriers to return when Low cost can do the job? Even on long haul a relatively low cost model could work if it was done right (i.e not Zoom).