AY, KL, AF and LH all offer MAN pax Chinese markets and compete with BA via LON. Likes of AY offer shortest journey while KL now serves 5 cities in China.
The facts are not enough pax yet are taking these routes. When these volumes pick up their demand becomes transparent to airline network planners. This will be when they start to show more interest.
CX has a strong ethnic Cantonese market in Manchester, can offer South East Asia without visa issues and serves Oz/Nz markets too.
However they are up against EK, QR and EY who are swamping the markets with their capacity making the yield potential from MAN less attractive. Same applies to MH.
Perhaps for MAN to break through on the Asia markets again with more direct links, services with Air Asia X, Jetstar ans "son of SQ" will be the realistic way to compete with middle east capacitt and yield prospects.
Or if a significant company in either China or the Northwest has staff travelling every day in J class between the regions it could become a catalyst for a start of service. This is what happened with MAN - PHL and i heard was a also a factor in EY choosing MAN back in 2006.
Any of you know about a potential company that has this traffic flow currently?