Originally Posted by
racedo
GRX from Gatwick would figure more like to have a good chance of sticking simply because sheer levels of Spanish people living in South East.
Worked in Manchester for a year in 2014 and found level of Europeans from Mediterranean well below London.
As for populations, while claiming that Man does cover a huge area is great, I wonder what the % who actually fly during the year is like.
Just using the different businesses worked with in Manchester and South East I would suggest probably 1 in 10 people in Manchester flew other than for Summer holidays, in the South East probably 1 in 4 from personal experience.
racedo, EZY are a hard headed business and I'm sure they have done their research. I think the figures alone for MAN, although not yet at LGW levels show decent growth and the potential for more given its second runway. MAN also benefits from excellent transport links given the proximity of the M6/M56 and main line rail, as well as many intercontinental connections from the USA and Middle/ Far East. Regarding the population's propensity to fly during the year it all depends on the population you are working with. My experience is exactly the opposite to yours in that most people I know in the Manchester area fly at least once a month, also there is a large Spanish population that attend Manchester University who regularly fly back to Spain. There are also many high tech and engineering businesses that attract a lot of EU graduates. One thing to keep in mind is that if you want to get anywhere in Europe from Manchester, it tends to be easier to fly directly rather than change in London for Eurostar hence we tend to have to fly pretty much by default. I hope this helps illuminate.