Manchester - 3
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: UK
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Absolutley correct FlyZB the place is falling to bits. Even La Senza has a small pond outside it this afternoon. I know its a lingerie shop but brings a whole new meaning to water sports!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Was looking ominous this afternoon when I spotted about 20 trays which they use to catch the 'drips' piled up on the ramp opposite Travelex in T1.
Was looking ominous this afternoon when I spotted about 20 trays which they use to catch the 'drips' piled up on the ramp opposite Travelex in T1.
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Manchester
Age: 53
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As I am sure the MAN management would be only too quick to point out, the cash pile isn't a bottomless pit! Be aware that they were threatened with removal of aerodrome licence by the CAA recently. This has lead to a complete re-vamp of certain taxi-ways. Not only that, the Health & Safety are also dishing out some pain at the moment.
Not that I am leaping to the defence of MAN, but there needs to be priorities placed on the cash. A leaking roof is nothing next to a crumbling taxi-way, even if both are a result of under investment over the years. One causes a few problems, the other shuts the airfield. Which would you like?
Having said that, I read in my local paper the other week about how much Geoff Muirhead earns, something in the 4 grand a week region. Perhaps he would like to donate some of this cash pile to a new terminal roof fund. Like most major business these days, this is at a time of the rank and file being squeezed harder and harder.
I agree that MAN could do with a big orange loco. Problem is that EZY are well entrenched at LPL. It would be more hassle than it is worth for them to move. LPL have invested a lot of money into the airport infrastructure in recent years, most of it based on EZY and FR continuing operations there. I imagine that if EZY said they were moving up the M56 there would be an oversized carrot dangled to persuade them to stay.
MAN needs more good quality long haul traffic. I remember seeing Quantas in here as a kid, are there not enough pax using this service from MAN to justify them coming back? It strikes me that MAN sits back and waits for the business to come and knock on the door. Customers are the blood of any company, without them you have no company. Perhaps they need to be more pro-active in gaining new business. And if they already do that, then perhaps they need to do it with a more public face, so that the name becomes more noticed on the international stage !!!
Not that I am leaping to the defence of MAN, but there needs to be priorities placed on the cash. A leaking roof is nothing next to a crumbling taxi-way, even if both are a result of under investment over the years. One causes a few problems, the other shuts the airfield. Which would you like?
Having said that, I read in my local paper the other week about how much Geoff Muirhead earns, something in the 4 grand a week region. Perhaps he would like to donate some of this cash pile to a new terminal roof fund. Like most major business these days, this is at a time of the rank and file being squeezed harder and harder.
I agree that MAN could do with a big orange loco. Problem is that EZY are well entrenched at LPL. It would be more hassle than it is worth for them to move. LPL have invested a lot of money into the airport infrastructure in recent years, most of it based on EZY and FR continuing operations there. I imagine that if EZY said they were moving up the M56 there would be an oversized carrot dangled to persuade them to stay.
MAN needs more good quality long haul traffic. I remember seeing Quantas in here as a kid, are there not enough pax using this service from MAN to justify them coming back? It strikes me that MAN sits back and waits for the business to come and knock on the door. Customers are the blood of any company, without them you have no company. Perhaps they need to be more pro-active in gaining new business. And if they already do that, then perhaps they need to do it with a more public face, so that the name becomes more noticed on the international stage !!!
Lady Lexxington
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Maybe this will open the eyes of the Senior management and push them into spending money on this ageing terminal.
The terminals are a disgrace they are just downright dangerous when the roof leaks onto the nice shiny floors. I wonder how MAPLC will like it when someone tries to sue them for an injury caused by them slipping on a wet floor which has no "wet floor" sign on it? That'll look good for furtue business. Maybe MAPLC should spend some of the income from all the retail on repairing the roofs properly and not keep bodging it with layers of tar.
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: England
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MA re-roofed most of T1 in summer 2004 and 2005.
But it doesn't hide the fact that during most of the 1990s when Geoff Muirhead was directly responsible as Chief Executive, most of the estate was under-invested in for maintenance. The T1 roof, and the aprons and taxiways are just the visible consequences of that, but you can also add the as-yet unseen disasters that are the T1 multi storey car park, T1 Arrivals landside, T1 Tower Block (aircon and asbestos), Pier B (asbestos), Olympic House (sick building syndrome and leaking cladding), Commonwealth House (leaking cladding), 4M (no tenants
) and more.
MA is behaving like a typical corporation - fat cat payrises for those in the ivory tower, decades of under-investment, excessive profits going straight back to the shareholders (local councils who spend it on lefty non-jobs), continual erosion of workers' pay and rights, and reductions in union power. The consequences are now coming home to roost - dangerous facilities, industrial unrest, difficulty recruiting and keeping staff, and worst of all the customers are voting with their feet, leaving the company in serious trouble. Don't forget that MA mortgaged both EMA and MAN to the hilt to buy EMA and BOH and that debt still needs paying back.
It is time for the Board and Chairman to take a long look at its senior management team and make some hard decisions, perhaps a bit harder than just getting rid of Mr Spooner and shuffling the deckchairs a bit.
My sympathies go to MF, DQ and all the others who had to put right another of GM's messes by getting T1 up and running again. As ever, it's the true workers who have to put right the poor judgement of management.
But it doesn't hide the fact that during most of the 1990s when Geoff Muirhead was directly responsible as Chief Executive, most of the estate was under-invested in for maintenance. The T1 roof, and the aprons and taxiways are just the visible consequences of that, but you can also add the as-yet unseen disasters that are the T1 multi storey car park, T1 Arrivals landside, T1 Tower Block (aircon and asbestos), Pier B (asbestos), Olympic House (sick building syndrome and leaking cladding), Commonwealth House (leaking cladding), 4M (no tenants
) and more.MA is behaving like a typical corporation - fat cat payrises for those in the ivory tower, decades of under-investment, excessive profits going straight back to the shareholders (local councils who spend it on lefty non-jobs), continual erosion of workers' pay and rights, and reductions in union power. The consequences are now coming home to roost - dangerous facilities, industrial unrest, difficulty recruiting and keeping staff, and worst of all the customers are voting with their feet, leaving the company in serious trouble. Don't forget that MA mortgaged both EMA and MAN to the hilt to buy EMA and BOH and that debt still needs paying back.
It is time for the Board and Chairman to take a long look at its senior management team and make some hard decisions, perhaps a bit harder than just getting rid of Mr Spooner and shuffling the deckchairs a bit.
My sympathies go to MF, DQ and all the others who had to put right another of GM's messes by getting T1 up and running again. As ever, it's the true workers who have to put right the poor judgement of management.
Lady Lexxington
Join Date: Jul 2004
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The reroofing was just putting tar down on top of exisiting material, you could see it quite clearly from our offices. Cheapest option has resulted in an enormous cost now. Bot good practice.
Join Date: Jan 2004
Location: England
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Yes Lex, the job was rolling down new felting and tar like one would put on a domestic flat roof. The problem is probably that due to leaks for so many years before that, the structure underneath was getting damaged and weakened.
Motto to Mr Muirhead: You can't polish a turd. The clever bit is to stop it becoming a turd in the first place.
I can imagine one or two people involved in that project hunting for phone directories to stuff down the back of their pants.... MA loves nothing more than a good witch-hunt and blame-allocation process.
Motto to Mr Muirhead: You can't polish a turd. The clever bit is to stop it becoming a turd in the first place.
I can imagine one or two people involved in that project hunting for phone directories to stuff down the back of their pants.... MA loves nothing more than a good witch-hunt and blame-allocation process.
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Stockport
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Manchester International
Blue sky thinking! Why do BA (& BD) shuttle passengers to LHR to connect with long haul flights? Heathrow is congested & other carriers are fighting for slots there. So why not shuttle the opposite way and develop international routes from Man? Include Stanstead in this idea (huge N.E. London and East Anglia catchment area) avoiding grief of crossing London by road or train. I recognise that Manchester's own catchment area isn't sufficient to attract many long haul operations at present but provide it as an attractive alternative and actively market connections to Southampton, the south west of England, Scotland & Ireland as well as those insular folk south of Watford. The CAA, BAA & Government are sadly obsessed with London 
.
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Join Date: Jan 2004
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My view, fwiw:
Most pax to/from LHR actually want to go to London or the surrounding area. They are also more likely to sit at the front, in the seats which actually make the money for the airlines.
MAN has a pretty good long haul network for a regional airport, but the demand is more for economy than business/first class, and the airlines don't make much from that.
In a nutshell, any longhaul destination to the UK will yield more £ to/from LHR than MAN because more pax come from, or want to be, in London in the first place, and they're more likely to buy a premium priced seat.
Exceptions are to/from Pakistan, due to the large immigrant communities in MAN's catchment area, and Emirates et al which seem to do quite well ex-MAN.
Over to the airline boys n girls for a better answer than this one.
Most pax to/from LHR actually want to go to London or the surrounding area. They are also more likely to sit at the front, in the seats which actually make the money for the airlines.
MAN has a pretty good long haul network for a regional airport, but the demand is more for economy than business/first class, and the airlines don't make much from that.
In a nutshell, any longhaul destination to the UK will yield more £ to/from LHR than MAN because more pax come from, or want to be, in London in the first place, and they're more likely to buy a premium priced seat.
Exceptions are to/from Pakistan, due to the large immigrant communities in MAN's catchment area, and Emirates et al which seem to do quite well ex-MAN.
Over to the airline boys n girls for a better answer than this one.
Lady Lexxington
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Daynehold the suttles exist because of the exisiting routes ex:LHR, i.e. Air New Zealand, so good business sense to connect to them.
There is quite a good LH market from MAN as evidenced by AA/BD/SQ/EK, etc. I know the demand for ORD from MAN is strong and bmi's Las Vegas service does really well. I do think there is enough demand for a direct LAX or SFO, that would be a brilliant point to point and also great for transferring pacific pax.
There is quite a good LH market from MAN as evidenced by AA/BD/SQ/EK, etc. I know the demand for ORD from MAN is strong and bmi's Las Vegas service does really well. I do think there is enough demand for a direct LAX or SFO, that would be a brilliant point to point and also great for transferring pacific pax.
Pilot of the Airwaves
Join Date: Jan 2004
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Every other airport in the UK has got it's arrivals and departures info on their websites back to normal except Manchester, which is still using a pathetic XL spread sheet,with details in alphabetical order for destinations and not detailing all flights.
Muppets!
Muppets!
Join Date: Oct 2005
Location: Manchester
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Airport website
IB4138
Tried 10mins after your posting and its working fine. Like G-I-B says it has been up and running for a few days now, although it was out of action for a good while. Took longer to fix that most other airports but thats ManAirport for you nowadays (not much works as it should, or as efficently).
Playamar
Tried 10mins after your posting and its working fine. Like G-I-B says it has been up and running for a few days now, although it was out of action for a good while. Took longer to fix that most other airports but thats ManAirport for you nowadays (not much works as it should, or as efficently).
Playamar
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Manchester UK
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Airport Website
IB4183/Playamar2,
I agree it's not good MAN were unable to provide a live flight information service via the web at a critical time. However, in the scheme of things, it seems they have done a good job of managing the crisis in an overall context. Let's be fair.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....or_crisis.html
AeroMANC.
I agree it's not good MAN were unable to provide a live flight information service via the web at a critical time. However, in the scheme of things, it seems they have done a good job of managing the crisis in an overall context. Let's be fair.
http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....or_crisis.html
AeroMANC.
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Longhaul through Heathrow.
I would rather fly from MAN any time but now that malaysian have left the fold i find i can get business fares to the far east and oz cheaper from LON than MAN.I travel to the airport by hire car so the cost of getting to the airport is about the same although even the land journey to MAN is much less hassle than LHR or LGW.However as i pick up my own costs the price decides and lower cost deals with the decent airlines don't seem to include MAN.. .
I would rather fly from MAN any time but now that malaysian have left the fold i find i can get business fares to the far east and oz cheaper from LON than MAN.I travel to the airport by hire car so the cost of getting to the airport is about the same although even the land journey to MAN is much less hassle than LHR or LGW.However as i pick up my own costs the price decides and lower cost deals with the decent airlines don't seem to include MAN.. .
1DC makes a valid observation. People always go on about the lack of premium pax ex MAN. A random search for a J class ticket MAN-HGK for Sept, best price was AFR at £1754, & DLH @ £2131. However, sames dates ex LHR will give you a J class seat with DLH for only £1545 - some 600 quid less than from MAN.It's not surprising then that potential premium pax vote with their wallets & trundle down to an already over congested airport.
Who flies MAN-HKG direct then? Perhaps that extra £600 is for the return MAN-LON-MAN bit!