Shed, I enjoyed reading your last 2 posts as always for the clear, articulate and polite way you express your views.
In this case, your knowledge of some of the past executives who made an impact at Manchester Airport even rang a few bells in my failing memory bank.
Tim Jeans went on to hold very senior positions at Liverpool Airport and Monarch Airlines so was something of a rising star at Manchester.
As I recall, Paul Connellan was a director at MAN in Gil Thompson's time, but didn't his role encompass both Marketing and Business Development? (And Gil himself was fairly prominent and influential in that area!). Haven't these two functions been separated, and there is maybe a perception that while the latter is rightly regarded as an increasingly vital part of the Airport's business, the former has been downgraded somewhat. The other change in the management structure over the last 20 years or so has been the growing importance of the wider commercial activities of the airport other than pure aviation, from shopping malls to car parking and the property portfolio.
As regards Aviation Business Development, there have been periods of economic downturn when I gather effort in that department has had to be concentrated on retaining the airlines and routes we held rather than on gaining new business. It seems to me this is where coordination between that department and Marketing is still a key factor, and it's not hard to conclude that isn't always happening as evidenced by the recent CX/SQ
PR disaster and the lack of any obvious promotion for the Cairo and Jeddah services.
I do of course agree that topics such as Marketing, Infrastructure developments and Transport links are essential ingredients to the future of Manchester Airport and trust they will continue to be intelligently discussed by you, Bagso and others on this forum.