is the end of 23L classed as a turning circle, or just a taxiway that happens to go back on itself
The charts seem to class it as the latter, I think its just commonly known as a turning circle due to its primary use (to enable a backtrack along the runway)
So it seems that everything is 'in hand' with regard to the A380's
arrival.....the doom mongers can now await the 'absolute chaos'
predicted for the daily arrival of the behemoth!
Yep it seems MAN is going to prove the nay-sayers wrong (I for one was a sort of nay sayer, as it seemed to take an age for those jetbridges to arrive). I believe Emirates set down a deadline for stand 12, and formed a 'no A380 until stand 12 is ready' ultimatum (which is understandable for the F/J class pax).
Anyway, now the stand is ready, I suppose its time for the doom-mongers to start on something else, like the 'baggage belts will fail with the pressure' or 'immigration/customs cant cope' kind of stories.
I for one am going to be quite proud that my local, regional airport is going to host the A380 on regular flights. Also, there have been many arguements that F class wont work at MAN, well, we now have 2 carriers offering F, with EY looking at joining the club.
Everone else at MAN should be proud too. I mean, for a regional airport with a medium sized city, we have a quite enviable offering of services:
-A daily A380 service, which even an airport the size of AMS/MIA/ORD/MUC etc hasnt even got yet
-CX to start using the B747-8 next year, making MAN the only UK airport to see the A380 AND the B747-8 on regular services (yes LHR has A380's, but not B747-8, likewise STN will see the B747-8 but not the A380)
-We are one of a few European airports that can support the 3 big middle east carriers (EY/QR/EK), whereas others can only cope with 1 or 2
-up to 5 New york services a day (CO/DL/AA/PK), whereas most other UK airports and even Euro airports can only manage 2-3
-Some good legacy carriers like AA/SQ/US and so on, with a good mix of loco and charter traffic to boot
-the first UK based B787 will be at MAN with TOM
So come on, yes, MAN has had better days (with QF/CX/SAA and so on), but for the size of city MAN is compared to AMS/MAD/LON etc, we have a lot to be proud of!