Shed - very perceptive posts on here as usual, making the important points that infrastructure, access and marketing issues are integral to the health - or otherwise - of the airport. Anyone who does not realise that should not be in the airports' business......So entirely legitimate points to make in any discussion about Manchester.
Some interesting recollections of some of the "visible people" in days gone by. Paul Connellan is still around the aviation business and Tim Jeans was of course a big cheese at Ryanair before going to Monarch and then onwards. These faces and more were to be found at Gil's memorial service last year.
A big re-shuffle of Airport middle and junior management took place in 2006 when the airline marketing side was reduced to a small number and numerous other departments were also reduced in size. I am given to understand that re-organisations have been commonplace thereafter, so I wonder how many people stay in the same post for any length of time. In the days Shed is talking about there was a certain longevity to organisational structures and faces which I suspect enabled people to "get under the skin" of their subject. Which in those days was of course only Manchester ...Now it's a group with multiple airports to look after, maybe the focus is lost?
Once upon a time Airline Marketing, Marketing and
PR were quite well integrated. Have no idea how it is done now and I kept arguing with Bagso that things must be happening behind closed doors and he just wasn't seeing them. But it would seem from what I read here that the actual flight and promotional messages are not even getting out, rather than getting out and having no effect. So sorry Bagso.
It also seems entirely frustrating that the Airport is still reportedly having a problem with bilaterals after all the decades of effort put into lobbying and influencing. Gil would have had his team "kicking in doors, even at 2300 on Sat night" and local MPs would have been mobilised to get the Chinese thing sorted. Is this going on and we just don't know? Let's hope so and that some good news will be forthcoming soon.
Don’t talk Ringway down, it is an important part of the UK’s aviation structure and the most important apart from Heathrow/Gatwick. It’s much more than just a regional airport.
Don't think people are - but they are arguing it could be a lot better if some of the basics were done correctly - especially when it had such a good record in the past.