A Good Week
A good week for Manchester with Emirates' start with the A380, after the media festival for the first day, everything has gone very smoothly. So very well done to the MA Ops team. The press coverage was great, with Emirates cleverly promoting the service and that many crew members were from the local area.
Almost un-noticed SQ restarted a daily Singapore service.
All in all pretty good for a 'regional' airport, or as Roverman put it, 'the Second City'. Which Manchester isn't. It's a confident and innovative city that really believes that the UK doesn't just revolve around London.
Gordon Sweetapple, who died recently, would have seen a very different airport, one that is globally connected, rather than just flying holiday-makers to Spain. But Gordon was an important part of the Airport's history. RIP.
One more thing ... apparently there's an anti-aviation protest arranged for tomorrow, a joint event with LCY groups protesting about domestic flights. There's no flights between MAN and LCY. About 30 protestors expected tomorrow for a tea-party. Apparently 7,000 turned up to see the A380 on Wednesday.
A good week.