"Once more into the beach, dear Friends....
Yes, another long thin route to an exotic beach destination. Once the bedrock of Thomas Cook and still an important part of their inventory, but we have become used to them branching out in to serving solid major city routes in the USA since then, leaving Thomson to specialise the 'holiday of a lifetime' market with their ultra-long reach Dreamliners. This seems a good strategy well-suited to MAN's diversity and resilience.
No doubt we're in danger of appearing to moan again about landing new routes or frequencies or aircraft types which many airports would die for. Taken in isolation the new Thomas Cook service is a positive development, as is the additional Cathay frequency to HKG. What some of us commentators look for is trends and perhaps the underlying policy of airlines and airports. Questions such as:
1. Will opportunities to add to the burgeoning capacity at London always de-rail the development of a proven, successful MAN service, or a promising potential one? Answer is probably Yes, which is frustrating, but MAN should eventually get the right level of service.
2. Will the fledgling Thomas Cook programme to major long haul destinations stall and force them back to focus on the beach / cruise market? Signs are that the former is reaching a sustainable mass but TCX probably want to maintain some diversity and presence in a market where they have a strong brand.