Madrid, Oslo, Warsaw, Helsinki,Vienna, Budapest I would say are the main cities perhaps BHX could get in the next few years
Why HEL above STO? FR did serve NYO for a season iirc, don't know what yields or occupancy were like, but in another life we've seen Sterling doing ARN, CPH & OSL from EMA, so I wonder how much talking there's been with DY?
It is the fare paying public that votes whether a route is successful, not the airlines and not the airports...
I strongly disagree!
Yes, it is true that airports can only have a "wish list" for airlines to serve (apart from rare cases like London City Airlines), but they also have access to local data showing where the demand exists.
However, it is the airlines which call the shots in terms of new routes. Look at the Ryanair network map in particular. Why do they serve some cities from some regional airports and not from others (of similar size)?
Some of the time it is down to the PSC at each end, but sometimes it is also a case of asset utilisation. If a summer schedule has 2 rotations down to the Med and a smaller gap to fill in the middle, pop in a run to Ireland.
Naturally, where customers "vote" demand to exist, airlines will be keen to serve it, but only if it generates sufficient yield to justify the costs of operating the sector. The two are not always the same.
Yes, an excellent link, crazy isn't it! They also cutback on the number of fast trains stopping at Watford, so that's many more on the roads then!
The WCML is the rail equivalent of a very slot constrained airport! One of the busiest lines in the world - each time you add a stop, you have to manage the trains behind it so they don't catch up too fast - or you let them through but hold the stopping service. It is all one vast juggling act which leaves Watford Junction and Rugby with just one Virgin service each hour, even though both see upto 10 more wizzing through.
Would pax from those areas not, in practice, get off in Manverpool and fly from MAN? unless, you don't envisage a stop at Ringway!
My comment was based on what we know about HS2 so far. There will be a stop serving Birmingham airport, even if it will be about 2 miles away, so you will have to transfer to a people mover.
The route of hs2 north of Brum is not published at this stage, and it may go somewhere near MAN, although I am not aware of a plan for it to stop there. It would be costly to bring it in to the airport complex as it may have to slice under the active runways.
The assumption made by BHX management is that if you have a fast rail link to London, together with the runway extension and zero new capacity in the SE, BHX would become more popular for long haul flights.
Whilst I don't agree with the assumption - largely because airlines will go to LGW long before BHX - if we take the scenario that BHX was to get significantly more routes than it has today, then it would surely be bigger and better than MAN as a result?