If that's not a distinctly dodgy post title, then I'll voluntarily give up my enhanced DBS.
I live near LPL and regularly spot at MAN, lets face it there isn't much variety at LPL...
Some interesting 'food for thought', the whole LPL V MAN. Much like Fury V Klitschko!
For what its worth:
Both MAN and LPL serve two very distinct markets, the legend goes that LPL does the bucket and spade routes albeit cheaply via FR and U2 (The airline not the band...) and MAN do-eth the long haul, which again is something that it does well. Let's face it, they don't have much in the way of competition up North do they, BHX has the daily AA JFK rotation and unles you do a one hop down to LHR or over to DUB then you can infer that MAN has it covered.
Personally I would love to see my home airport knock out some Transatlantic flying, but I have to put my wishlist away, get out my sheet music and play 'The Real Waltz'. Peel have always said one of their long term aspirations is to have an established transatlantic route, brings us to the question 'Where to?' Most if not all would say JFK, but that puts you in direct competition with MAN and BHX...plus to some extent DUB via EI. Remember Globespan, they tried to make it work with one 757, when that went tech they subbed a 737-800 that stopped at either Keflavik or Bangor to redeem some clubcard points. And then GSM went bust. Though from what I hear the YHM route didn't do too badly so there's some movement in LPL looking at Canada. Aside from AC Rouge's summer seasonal to YYZ and the year round TS to Toronto plus seasonal YYC/YVR, there's some scope there for Canadian expansion.
To me though Liverpool has always been the following
- Second to Manchester in terms of long haul - Never been a market for it, Liverpool is good for connections (EI - DUB / KL now BE - AMS)
- A low cost hub - The routes MAN never wanted before it saw sense and FR/U2 moved in.
- Student friendly - BFS/DUB/BHD are primarily huge student markets with LPL being a good spot to learn.
For what its worth my 2p, discuss, tear apart, agree or disagree?