On the day Boris Island was rejected the internet was awash with
PR put out by STN, in terms of a major master plan for developing Stansted.
Whilst it did not get any airtime on BBC who rightly or wrongly cannot see beyond Heathrow or Gatwick , well done Andrew Harrison for some adept marketing guile.
Reading the script however was more worrying as this points at a £260m investment plan to develop STN over the next 5 years.
This is worth investigating, whilst there is an £800m investment in "Manchester Airport" this appears to be specifically on Airport City and the peripheral areas, whilst welcome it does not appear to be on Terminals, Taxiways, Aprons, Piers etc ?
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On a second point it has been suggested that a few of us on here see our cup as half empty,
Maybe, but being realistic 8 months ago it was very much a case of onward and upward, Cathay had been announced, USAir, Rouge, Flynas etc
increases on US carriers for summer , then came The Thomas Cook rumours......all jolly good news !
Since then ?
Hainan, if true fantastic, but as with Cathay and Saudia, they do need filling, just parachuting in a new service without some tactical changes to passenger flows not just from Gtr Manchester but across the whole catchment area is risky.
To me at leas,t somehow the airport need to generate that "LHR connectivity WOW Factor" !
You sometimes get the impression that Manchester "The City" props up all these services because "primarily" although not exclusively, that's where the publicity normally resides.
The BBC Angle as above
"LHR serves the UK"
"Manchester serves ....well Manchester."
But what else has happened ?
FlyNas...no comment
The great news about the new US flight to Charlotte was tempered by a reduction in another, is the market so small that we are reduced to simply moving a very limited number of pax around on a chess board. If as Skip originally suggested Charlotte goes, where does that leave Philly given the numbers have since diminished..... ironically as a direct result of the new Charlotte service ?
Chicago - a 30 year old service now effectively reduced to seasonal without a by or leave, does The North only trade with the United States in Summer !
Egytpair..... it stutters on, maybe bilateral agreements will get resolved now Whitehall is back from its hols, there again it's not London and nobody is seemingly banging on the door with any ferocity so maybe we sit on our hands for another month or two....by then it might be a distant memory another carrier gone !
Aer Lingus - retraction of a good commuter filler 3 a day - shifting yet more capacity to Dublin, but worse , at the same time EI announcing LBA - Dub - > USA.
Dublin eating away at the margins as they prosper from pre-clearance/APD or lack of ! I suspect the Airport Authority cannot believe their good fortune re APD its effect on Manchester ......and our Chancellor !
And now Scotland awaits, even if they do not get independence the margins are so tight they will benefit, AND if scrapping APD is given as an option rest assured they will grasp it.
Trains (sorry), if Manchester has aspirations about connectivity and an Airport City these should be massively expanded not reduced, but again nobody seems able to challenge these decisions let alone campaign against them , they just, well happen... the towns they effect are vocal but what about the Airport, vociferous enough ?
Of course its not all bad news far from it , 6% increase in traffic, (as economy improves), Metrolink opening early, AND YES I do focus on failure not success ?
BUT I don't want this silent arrogance that we can lose US routes, Cairo, or indeed a reduction to trains links outside the coverage of the M.E.N. without some real fight that we did our absolute damnedest to retain ALL of them, so yes maybe my cup is half full !
Cheers