Amman - 4 weekly A320
Damascus - 2 weekly A320 (Syrianair did well ex MAN, just poor punctuality and management)
Istanbul - daily A320 (turkey doing well and TK monopolising this route)
Tel Aviv- daily A320 (Give LS a run for their money, also giving people a choice of all 7 days to travel, not just Tue and Thu)
Also, in Europe, MAD, VIE, VNO, FCO, MXP and BBF could easily work ex MAN, just need them to be added
I agree. Maybe 4x weekly on AMM is a bit too excessive yet I would expect it to certainly increase over time from 2x weekly.
Damascus is another that, with a well known and reliable airline offering reasonable fares (which U2 is probably best at!) would work.
IST is a TK route and I would guess will remain a TK route for the foreseeable future. I would make a prediction that many, if not the majority of TK passengers ex. MAN will connect in IST as they often offer the best fares going east.
I have to say, with TLV, a much larger schedule is definitely what is required. Daily, or at least 5x weekly would be much better for MAN and the airline on the route because as you say, there is more flexibility for passengers and for a route where there is demand I would like to think this would increase the success of the route.
The other destinations you have mentioned are again, very valid, however, it needs to be taken into account what happens down the road at LPL with both U2 and FR.
I still believe that the only two airlines that can make MAN-MAD work are U2 and IB/BA, the latter offering twice daily for connecting passengers would be their best option. U2 are U2 so where they fly, passengers come.
MAN offers some of the most lucrative routes on U2's network and for them to continue to make a success of MAN they do need to look at this longer distant routes such as AMM and TLV which clearly are working for the carrier!
Interesting times for U2 and MAN...Is three (U2/MAN/LPL) becoming a crowd?
