Bagso, "Especially after such a bullish presentation that Manchester and Airport City is the place to be"
Can you elaborate please? This passed me by.
As regards the bad news, I suspect he won't be too surprised about flynas, annoyed about Egyptair if they are definitely pulling out, but possibly more agitated about not getting Bucharest, assuming of course it was an airline and route they wanted. While a new destination from the North West is welcome, airports are highly competitive and MAN will not be happy if it loses out to a competitor up the road.
For MAN to continue to grow, it seems to me we need to increase the average pax per movement with larger a/c or increased LFs, and to win more flights at the times of day when runway, apron and terminal capacity permits. Foreign carriers such as Wizz, Norwegian , Vueling and Air Blue etc. could provide such opportunities by using non-based a/c. Likewise, at present I'm not sure we could handle more EZY and RYR based a/c, but more services with non-based a/c during the day would always be welcome, assuming of course sufficient demand and potential exists and routes are viable.
Expectations for S2015 have been high with the prospect of new long haul routes. But it will also be interesting to see whether or not Rouge and AA/US to Charlotte return after their short seasonal offerings this year.