Originally Posted by
Flightrider
In amongst the "poor me" Manchester comments about Virgin's planned winter programme, has anyone stopped to consider that a) they may be short of either aircraft or crew resources or both for reasons including but not limited to continued re-fleeting - just look at the impact that's had at Finnair - and b) in deciding where to cut, route profitability will be a primary factor in decision making alongside (presumably) protecting their LHR slots. If the MAN routes were the cash cows that you'd believe from reading some of these comments, they would either not be making these harsh cuts or Delta would be swinging back in to operate them under the joint venture. The fact that neither is happening speaks volumes.
It did cross my mind about aircraft as I see it's reported elsewhere the next 787 is due this month (if not already) then the remaining 3 delivered in 2018. Could it be there are a handful of A340's due to go off-lease later this year?
That said, I still think the weak £ vs the $ is having some sort of impact somewhere and I think any comments about the route needing the frequencies to grow are perfectly valid. I'd be interested to see the loading figures 12 months from now once we've gone through the summer and winter seasons.