MANCHESTER 1

[roverman]

MAN on the brink of Premier League promotion

25 Million pax will be a stretch in 2016 calendar year, although not altogether fanciful. Looks like we'll finish 2015 around 23.1M so 25 would require some fairly aggressive growth in the year ahead. 2017, without a doubt.

MAN has lain within the 15-25mppa bracket for the past two decades. When it passes 25mppa which it will soon, it moves into the premier league in terms of volume as defined by ICAO/IATA/ACI, and will be measured against some of the giants of the industry with respect to things such as customer satisfaction, and punctuality. It is a telling tale of MAN's near unique characteristics, in Europe at least, when you look at the other airports with this sort of volume. They are almost exclusively capital/principal city airports which are either the hub base for their nation's flag carrier, or in countries such as Germany where there is no dominant city, an airport where there are international services flown by the flag carrier (i.e. MUC/DUS/BCN). MAN exists in a nation utterly dominated by its capital and is used by the UK flag carrier only to link into its capital city hub. DUB fights well above its weight when you look at the size of catchment but it is an EU capital with a flag carrier hub.

MAN remains a fascinating airport, home to almost no airline yet important to many. If its wannabe hub ambitions are derided by some, they must concede that it is the ultimate Super Spoke, getting to be on the 'must go there' list of an increasing number of world airlines. How many airports mix so many heavies with so many turboprops, so many market segments, flag carriers from around the world? 200+ destinations (more than LHR it is claimed). Still substantially in public hands but operating as a fiercely commercial entity with no national government funding, never has had. Compare that to the Billions of Euros invested by national governments at MUC and BCN over recent years, maybe DUS too. You can moan about T1 at MAN but it has cost the taxpayer nowt. The £1 Billion redevelopment and expansion of T2 will cost the taxpayer, let me see, oh yes, nowt!

As we contemplate pouring £Billions into our supposed only UK hub, you have to say that MAN has been and continues to be fantastic value for money for the UK, and putting a fair slice of its profit back into the local taxpayers pockets. Let's get this straight, the case for Heathrow is about the South-East, I don't use Heathrow unless I'm going to a meeting there, I don't need to. It is just one choice out of many, and not a particularly attractive one if I need to change planes. Claiming R3 is about the UK as a whole is a smokescreen north of the Midlands, 'cos with this kind of MAN about the house, we don't need it. Goodnight!