I think, honestly that the Airport's master plan is being extremely conservative, all being well I'd hope we could be heading towards 7-8 mil by 2021 and well over 10 mil by 2030. After all, we were heading for 7 mil in 2009 before the credit crunch.
If we truly are out of the recession and the upturn goes well... NCL will do well, just look at LBA for example, unless something drastic changes at NCL they will overtake us by 2015.
Regarding fire cover, 61m??? But the 77W is 65m so I'm confused as to how that works. Fire cover could be upgraded pretty quickly, I'm sure NCL has been commended on it's fire service and I'm under the impression Cat 10 probably wouldn't be that difficult to upgrade to as there is less to upgrade from 8 to 10 than there is to upgrade, for example from 6 to 8. And if MME can upgrade with not much notice to handle 777's and A330's...
And yeah, NCL, especially when it comes to EK, or maybe just EK in general is just completely unpredictable.
- When EK was first discussed, people were talking about 4 weekly A310, the A330 was discounted due to it's size.
- 2006, EK first rumoured, 4 weekly A330 talked about, daily deemed too much.
- EK announce the route, daily A330, everyone says it wont work.
- 2009, 777 first mentioned, load factors called abysmal, people saying they would pull the route, NCL cant handle 777's etc. At most people think the 77E/L could come but very doubtful.
- 75th Anniversary, proven the 77W can operate with a full load.
- When the daily 77W was announced, even I was shocked, because as EK was shown, there is enough slack for a 77L to operate the route, but no, they picked the larger. People still talk about the route being dropped.
- And now, here we are 1827 A330's and 473 777's later and people still don't have faith in the route, BUT EK themselves have talked about 2 daily in a few years and us enthusiasts are hoping for the A380 one day, just as some hoped for the 777 4 years ago.
Please... Let us dream, there's nothing wrong with it here on Professional Pilots Only Facts Network.