MANCHESTER - 9

[Bagso]

MANFOD

I think best person to answer this would be "Mr Brush" or "Suzeman" who can always be depended upon to have the detail.

Appreciate the document was quite old BTW, I was just using it as a reference point.

Clearly it is quite an old document but I felt it was quite an interesting discussion point as it was produced by an outside agency, namely the CAA so was actually unbiased ...and of course Manchester features prominently.

It demonstrates how long this thorny issue has been debated !

Emirates were of course operating to Dubai well before that doc was produced , they were included as the case referred specifically to a
US-Man-Dubai service (ie Houston) NOT the Manchester - Dubai leg !

The comment from the airport was as I understand it part of a written submission only. Graham Stringer MP banged on about at this at length at the hearings, but incredibly (and I may be doing them a disservice ), I did not hear any airport spokesman actually mention it.

For something which is clearly so utterly vital and fundamental to future growth you could be forgiven for thinking it fell under the radar somewhat, have said before it seemed a glaring omission to me ?

Maybe the airport cannot be seen OR does not wish to be encouraging new direct services too much, IF that is to the detriment of airlines already serving Man via connecting hubs ?

Possibly the thinking is that the airlines have to approach them so they are seen as honest broker ?

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In terms of bilaterals the implication seems to be "lets have Open Skies" BUT the critical wording suggests that can only happen "if it is not to the detriment of our own national UK airlines", which it quite clearly will be !

If Air China wish to operate into Manchester I cannot see BA sitting there and saying fair enough, off you go without demanding reciprocal rights, problem is they don't operate from MAN , they only want to fly from LHR and thus the status quo is maintained.

If Air China were granted 3 flights a week Beijing - Manchester, they are only going to agree to BA doing the same , if the reciprocity was from LHR , they are simply not going to agree to that !

As a business I do actually have some sympathy with BAs stance, why would you let somebody into your backyard when you could pull in some of that demand routing pax via LHR, but how on earth do we square this, I really do not know and how the MEBs were allowed in, again no idea !

The Q is , do you protect the national airline which appears to have been by and large the strategy thus far OR do you allow foreign airlines to serve Manchester direct thus creating better trade links, opening up more opportunities for trade etc ?