Some thoughts on Manchester
As an ex-pat Mancunian who many years ago was intimately involved in promoting Manchester as a destination as well as being involved on a group looking at how the airport could develop, during Gil Thompson's time, the debates on here regarding Manchester sometimes amuse and often annoy me.
Having just almost completed a round the world trip (currently in Houston) I've been through 12 airports in seven countries, nine of which I've never used before and, added to over 50 years experience of air travel around the world, the trip has highlighted certain points people make regarding the downsides of Manchester.
Let's look at ground transportation. The options at Manchester are as good as many major airports. The adverse comments regarding the new hire car centre are a nonsense. At Los Angeles I had to wait 30 minutes on Saturday for a Hertz bus for an 11 minute trip to the airport lot. At Houston, which I visit twice a year, you can wait 20 minutes for the bus to connect to the international terminal from the car hire centre.
Trains at Manchester may get held outside the station but you have a choice of destinations outweighing most rail linked airport stations which often only offer a premium price service.
Take Sydney. The relatively new airport service also serves suburbs either side of the airport. The fare to, say, Town Hall from the two suburbs immediately adjacent to either side is $3.80, from the domestic terminal is $16.40, from the international terminal is $17.20. This "airport access" fee obviously puts off tens of thousands of passengers and many airlines wishing to serve Sydney. The hotel shuttle buses can take well over an hour from downtown in rush hours and the road network is average.
There are complaints about the border and security checks at Manchester. Let's stay with Sydney where outbound to New Zealand, checking in at 07.30, the Air NewZealand check in is a zoo followed by 40 minutes to get through security.
Inbound, let's look at Auckland. New Zealand has a population of just over 4 million, about 1.75 million live in Auckland's land transport catchment area. The airport is smaller than Manchester. Arriving mid afternoon from Sydney, from parking at the gate to walking into the arrivals hall to meet relatives took 75 minutes. Why, well too few immigration officers, New Zealand's stringent bio security regime and the fact that Auckland has no fewer than 3 Emirates A380s arriving pretty much together. I'll come back to them later.
Los Angeles immigration had just 3 officers handling international passengers at terminal 2 to handle 300 odd Air New Zealand passengers and two flights from Mexico last Friday. 85 minutes to get through, fairly typical of US international gateways. Most regular travellers are used to long lines at both security and immigration around the world. It's the once or twice a year traveller that complains, or those who just want to moan about their home airport. That, of course, doesn't put off the 600 or so pax per day who fly into Rarotonga every day and put up with up to two hour immigration lines with no air conditioning in tropical heat.
Back to Auckland and those A380s. What are they doing there every day? They come from Dubai having called at Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane respectively. They are by no means full. There are no problems with handling them all together on the ramp, they do increase the lines at immigration but this is accepted as they are bringing in visitors and give the city a much needed connection over Dubai to compete with the home carrier.
They were enticed to Auckland by a lady born in Denton Manchester, during her time as Chairman of the Airport Authority. The benefit to Emirates comes from being able to offer Europe three daily flights to New Zealand, something no-one else offers.
She also has gained a daily B787 China Southern flight to Guangzhou, not the most natural
Chinese destination as other areas of China are more relevant to the country.
Perhaps Manchester Airport should try to entice my "can do" cousin back home to do a job for them!
The fact is, folks, that Manchester is no worse and in many respects much better than many airports around the world. What it currently lacks is another Gil Thompson and a team who are "aviation to make money minded" rather than the accountants who think shops and car parking are the fast route to big profits.
It would also help if the UK wasn't so London centric but as long as Dave and his friends from Eton and their like are in power there's little hope of that.