Well Dave 59, you do seem to have a downer on MAN. Can you substantiate
Not really a downer on MAN but a longing for a facility to be proud of rather than the 'Tesco value' experience that I have had over the last 30 years. Works in progress and out of service equipment are culturally ingrained here.
As Dobbo Dobbo has said the contact stands will eventually increase with the TP. And as others have explained earlier, having a contact stand available for every flight in the peak even if you have room means that a huge increase in costs, not only to build it but to run it when it would lie empty most of the time. There is no business case for it and the airlines don't want it.
Well of course Pier C was pretty empty for much of the time when it was new as was terminal 2. No such slack in the system seems to be called for now. I accept the plans could change to adopt a greater number of contact gates, but initially they were similar to present levels.
MAG are not responsible for the ground equipment; that is for the handling agents to decide
Oh, so that's alright then.