If the report was termed " A Review Of Capacity Contraints in the South East" you would have a point Frank, BUT it wasn't Or did I miss something ?
Certainly I was given the impression in respect of the submissions it was a route and branch review of UK wide airport policy !
Why on earth were hearings held in Manchester ?
Why did those collecting evidence provide submissions about the viability of Tokyo and Hong Kong flights in respect of flights from Manchester, why was so much time spent on this ?
Why was the subject of bilaterals discussed, by a number of MPs who raised this no fewer than 3 or 4 times, it its not an issue why was it mentioned.
Why was the introduction of US preclearance at Manchester as a way of stimulating growth discussed ?
None of these ended up anywhere near the report !
As you say Frank Government can only provide a framework in which airlines operate, they cannot dictate policy, there could and should however have been a bit more creativity in this regard.
Manchester is at the epicentre of the UK surrounded by the UKs 5 largest cities, it has thee best road and rail connections , it has better connectivity to the rest of the UK in terms of domestic air feed than LHR and LGW and as pointed out has capacity, if this was Germany they would come up with a methodology to capitalise on those benefits because they think differently, I defy anybody to suggest otherwise, sadly we don't, same old mindset, same old thinking ! Once again Manchester was lumped in as a irrelevance, a meaningless "regional airport", that in essence was the gist of the report.
To a certain degree those that initially pressed the case on behalf Manchester are equally culpable, as soon as the STN deal went through the arguments that the CAPA analysts have remarked on completely vanished, it was as though Manchester never existed. The tiller was swung toward Essex but the boat sank !
BUT lets be clear Nobody "Up North" Is suggesting that traffic is forced away from London far from it I have long since argued London needs I airport , 5 runways, but what we have now is nothing short of shambolic, 5 major airports all vying for the same airspace and all around the M25. 1 new runway will not solve the problems that this has created.
Given the complete bind that airport policy is now in I thought there would have been some really creative thinking in this report on how better to try and manage the situation.
In this respect it was an utter and abject failure.
Last edited by Bagso; 3rd Jan 2014 at 08:20.