Well said BDLBOS, as a regular user of MAN I agree entirely.
LHR R3 is at least 20 years away, and based on past form of our learned and dithering politicians it could quite possibly never be built at all. In the meantime MAN (and other airports) have at least a 20 year head start to continue building on the growing selection of point to point, and point to "any hub except LHR" services which have increasingly changed the way people from the regions travel over the years. Given properly planned and delivered alternatives, in 20 years time most of the UK market north of Watford will have forgotten LHR even exists.
The problem for MAN is the terminals and apron areas are already congested right now during peak months and at popular times of the day. So just what growth alternatives are they actually offering ?
If MAN really has ambitions to become "the Northern gateway" of choice for airlines and their passengers, MAG need to start doing something significant and long term about the much discussed plans for terminal redevelopment, apron capacity and inter-terminal transfer experience without further delay.
They should also be vigorously pursuing any possibility of becoming the first UK airport to offer a US pre-clearance facility. This should all form part of a long term strategy for MAN to become "the Northern Gateway". Maybe I'm being unfair and there actually is such a strategy ?
Short term band aid solutions, such as overflowing car parks onto the aircraft aprons, won't cut it much longer. Like BDLBOS I would dearly like to see MAN make the most of the opportunity it now has, but as it requires long term planning and major investment I too have my doubts. Could it be MAG are waiting for a decision on LHR/R3 from the pollies before committing to major investment ? If so I fear they could be waiting a very long time ! Too much time spent naval gazing / prevaricating and MAN risks waking up one morning to find a few airports rather closer to home than LHR have already stolen its lunch - again
PS. I note from the ACL website that seat capacity at DUB this summer is up by 11% on last year. Makes MAN's 1.3% look very underwhelming indeed
