Ryanair
I see RYR have started to load their schedules for next winter for STN and BHX.
A couple of new routes and plenty of increased frequencies for STN. It will be interesting to see what happenns at MAN after this summer's modest net growth in capacity.
As for Hainan, I thought the plug for CX by Charlie Cornish last week with reference to the connecting opportunities to cities on mainland China was very striking. Despite Osborne's premature comments, I think I'm right in saying that MAN had consistently maintained that negotiations were ongoing but were hoping for an announcement in the next 2-3 months. In fact, for a while I recall MAN were saying talks were in progress with several Chinese airlines. However, all that was before Christmas and, as Bagso quite rightly points out, reference has been noticeably missing from more recent press briefings. Does that mean the route is dead for the foreseeable future? Maybe, maybe not. If it does still happen later this year, we can wonder why the delay. If it doesn't, it would be intriguing to know what went wrong.