Connectivity depends on critical mass, BA has it, LH has it, EK/QR/EY AF have it, KL has it however VS doesn't come close and VS/DL is still not there. Do you deny the UK should even have a hub Bagso? I assume you mean you'd prefer KLM to leave MAN-AMS on fiddling little narrow bodies and set up a point to point MAN long haul operation with spare MD11s? Or am I misunderstanding?
Well my response was to a slightly different question posed by FFD so unsure what narrow bodies to AMS has to do with it , but as you ask Skip.
Lets be clear my interest is Manchester, The NWest and The North in that order, I see Manchester Airport as key to that. I hope therefore those who are charged with running its operation over their tenure do their damnedest to secure new routes and of course retain them.
How you view that performance is difficult to quantify with no based airline, and located 200 miles from one of thee largest hubs in the World, you could argue it still does brilliantly well.
It currently also has to put up with a torrent of media output focused on London and its airport expansion.
As a slight aside no finer example than the constant outpouring of support from @Telegraph who even this week ran the headline in their business column
" 6 out of 10 MPs support expansion at Heathrow,
This utterly misleading headline suggested a vast majority of our MPs support this, quite frankly its utter BULL@@@@
When you read the detail only 140 MPs were actually questioned , the 6 out of 10 figure relates to them.
how about an equally misleading line therefore ...
40% of MPs reject Heathrow ?
I'm not against a hub airport but please lets base the conclusion on a "thorough decision making process" and also have a fair playing field and not this blind faith that it has to be LHR just because its there .....
And certainly not a decision made by the imbeciles on the Airport Commission or the MPS who will then vote on this poor research.
"We have to compete , no new runways have been built in since WW2",
That was another line trotted out this week, hang on, did you not have your chance with Stansted or did i miss that one, a huge white elephant fortunately saved only by the coincidence of a locost revolution, there was an opportunity then, but nobody turned up, they are still try now, all to no avail !
Right airport Wrong location !
For what its worth "a hub" should have been been built in my view out towards the M40 corridor somewhere near the old USAF airfield at Croughton. A large 4 runway airport, where there is room to expand, where the current workforce can get to etc.
But they didn't.....the opportunity in my view was lost. So sorry no I don't believe this desperate attempt and that is what it is to expand LHR is the answer, its in totally the wrong place , the infastructure won't support the airport, another runway to the North merely tinkers at the edges , but like the bankers before them we have consultants , etc all rubbing their hands with glee at the £000,000s to be made, if its the wrong decision well the devil take the high road.
Its a mess, that cannot be unraveled but lets not make a bigger one !
So we are where we are like it or lump it !
On that basis if there is a demand to trade with "The UK" it has to go somewhere, if Manchester benefits so be it. I'm sure you will argue again maybe its false demand based on an inability to get into LHR, maybe it is, I would argue that we have significant capacity in TheNorth that will support a sizeable amount of demand that originates up here.
It has to go somewhere and whilst it may not be the complete answer I would much prefer airlines such as ;
USAir
Rouge
SAUDIA
Cathay
Thomas Cook
Delta
Hainian etc
.... come to Manchester, which is the actuality, than to have somebody preach if we don't do this or don't do that they will go somewhere in Europe.
Last edited by Bagso; 10th Sep 2014 at 07:36.