MANCHESTER - 8

[HXdave]

CX - ZRH service

Skipness One Echo,

this is the information from the Manchester Airport Agents site, regarding the SQ service via MUC:

Singapore Airlines update on SIN service

Passengers travelling on the MAN to Singapore (SIN) with SQ Singapore Airlines will be asked to disembark at Munich (MUC). However, there will be no security checks, meaning that any Duty Free items purchased at MAN will be permitted.
On the return leg, from SIN to MAN, passengers will be able to stay on board the aircraft and keep any Duty Free purchases made in Australia or Asia

I would presume (however I am always happy to be corrected) that the CX service would be on very similar lines.

HXDave

[dwlpl]

im not a football fanatic, but i always thought man utd were in trafford and not manchester...... isnt city that are in manchester, as they are called after the city...hence manchester city, utd started as newton heath, then moved to trafford, not manchester..

You thought correctly.

[MUFC_fan]

im not a football fanatic, but i always thought man utd were in trafford and not manchester...... isnt city that are in manchester, as they are called after the city...hence manchester city, utd started as newton heath, then moved to trafford, not manchester....

Very true! Still provides MAN will a hell of a lot of traffic and to be honest MAN wouldn't be half as big as it is now without the support of surrounding areas.

[wanna_be_there]

Here's a thought. Are Cathay going to be in Terminal 3 I wonder?

Well, the 2 re-patriation flights last week used T2, on the TAS website, theres a nice pic of the CX A343 on stand, so maybe T2 will be used again.
With the business emphasis they have put on it lately, Id rather them use T1 however.

CX could make MAN daily non-stop and it would be full, both cabin and belly almost everyday of the week

I think its better to let a route mature first. CX are no strangers to MAN, they used to serve pax here before, and been here in their cargo guise for many many years, so they will know what capacity and frequency to use.

I think the F offering might also have something more to do with ZRH than MAN in the same way SQ is offered on the back of the MUC service

More than likely to be true, but with EY offering F next year, along with SQ/EK, seems like the eastern routes are really picking up now!

[spannersatcx]

Well this CX news is very interesting, not for the service but the impending action of Rampman :

Quote:
'm with you on that spannersatcx you will never see a CX passenger flight in MAN if ever they like to play down at LHR if they do come to MAN i will eat my hat whilst i do a jig up taxiway delta ontop of a tug

rampman

can't wait.
As Ian points out 138,000 still transit LHR from MAN to HKG despite the EK, QR, EY services. I always use SWR or LH. However time is a factor & I'd rather fly on the same aircraft with a small tech stop than a transit & plane change in the middle of the night.

I won't do a jig but I'll eat my hat, new routes for next year have already been announced, including the tag between CDG and SPL, if CX were to tag MAN with someone you'd think it would be with either of those existing routes and not a new one via ZRH. As thare is no operation at either ZRH or MAN it will be very costly to set up, and CX doesn't like to spend!

ZRH - MAN happened a long time ago and it failed, lasted one summer if that.

I hope it happens but can't see it.

[wanna_be_there]

Spannersatcx,

both ZRH/MAN will be new routes with same flight number, so a good way of opening 2 bases with 1 sword.

This is what was posted on flyertalk, hope the OP doesnt mind me copying and pasting.

Two CX sales rep from the San Francisco office came over to our TA office today discuss what we can expect for 2011. They presented a slide show photos of the new business class through an overhead projector, photos which have already been posted here and their discussion with regards to the seat features as well as who and when will get them were pretty much on line with what has been talked about here. They also mentioned about the launch of ORD & RUH along with the additional flights to JFK/YYZ which have all been made public with an official press release from the company. But what was interesting were several other plans which have not been announced to the general public yet but are definately in the cards and likely to be the case which include:

• 3rd daily SFO flight by midde of fall 2011
• 2nd daily FRA flight by middle of fall 2011
• Re-launch of ZRH by end of 2011
• Re-launch of MAN by end of 2011

They did not mention about the weekly frequency for ZRH and MAN but hinted that they may be under the same flight by going HKG-ZRH-MAN-ZRH-HKG. We also did ask them about economy plus but at the end of the day, they were still unable to confirm when and if this indeed a 100% go.

There is no reason for a poster to make this up (not this elaboratly anyway), so if CX had no intention of MAN, then why would they put it into a slide show presentation?

Deffinatly one to watch

[spannersatcx]

We shall see!

[AP1995]

the cathy pacific is operating from t3 aparntly on wikipedia, but also on tas manchester it says t3 i think

[spannersatcx]

the cathy pacific is operating from t3 aparntly on wikipedia, but also on tas manchester it says t3 i think

By the way it's Cathay

Oh well it must be true then! TAS says it's been announced, well I can assure you it hasn't been announced. There seems some excitement about it, which is good, but I wouldn't get too excited yet you know what happened last time CX was set to fly to MAN

It seems strange 2 salesmen in SFO know more than anyone else, I'll ask the cleaner he's usually first to know anything.

[ManofMan]

Re the CX service, whilst sat in Cathay City a month or so back I again asked the question about Manchester getting a passenger service... "we have no plans to start a service into Manchester, it isn't even on the discussion table", the only thing they would confirm is the Manchester freighter service will be dropping to 6 x weekly next year, they also denied the rumor I had heard that we would be one of the first destinations to receive the 747-800, advising that when they do get them they will be deployed on the USA services.

[MUFC_fan]

Re the CX service, whilst sat in Cathay City a month or so back I again asked the question about Manchester getting a passenger service... "we have no plans to start a service into Manchester, it isn't even on the discussion table", the only thing they would confirm is the Manchester freighter service will be dropping to 6 x weekly next year, they also denied the rumor I had heard that we would be one of the first destinations to receive the 747-800, advising that when they do get them they will be deployed on the USA services.

And who would those people you were talking to be?

[roverman]

Cathay pax and freight

Good news indeed, if it be true, about CX returning with passenger services. Perhaps with 4 daily services established at LHR, and the future scarcity of slots at the main London hub, there has been a rethink about how to expand capacity to the UK? Let's see what, if anything, is said when we all recover from our New Year hangovers.

Man of Man - I wouldn't be too pessimistic though about the 747-8F. I recall when CX took delivery of the -400ERF MAN was told not to expect them for a while as they would be used on Pacific services. One showed up the second week and ERFs have been frequent visitors ever since. The biggest unknown seems to be Boeing getting the thing to delivery. Stand 73 will be ready when they do.

[wanna_be_there]

ManofMan,

Seems like the person you were speaking to was not telling the truth

Just found this little nugget on the official CX face book page:

Poster:

Hi Cathay Pacific. Some CX sales reps in San Fransisco are saying MAN-HKG will be opened by the end of 2011, is this true?

Cathay Pacific response, word for word:

Hi Simon! Thank you for your inquiry. Please stay tuned for our official press release. Thanks.

Seems to me, judging by the wording, that this is a done deal, after all, I doubt they are going to make a press release to state they will not be serving MAN in 2011, just imagine how many press releases they would have to make for every city they are not serving!

The face book page is there for all joe public to see if anybody would like to verify the above

Looks like were are going to be seeing a few half chewed hats around the UK soon....

[spannersatcx]

Well that just got 2 sales reps in SFO the sack.

747-8 initial plan is to operate to the US, when more arrive they will come to Europe.

The discussion ManofMan had must of been a while ago, as the freighters to MAN had been at 6 a week all summer, due to lack of freighters and starting the round the world service. It's back up again to 8 from 1/1/11 due freighter from LHR on a thursday and the reinstating of a Saturday flt.

There seems a lot of excitement about this alledged service, I think some are getting ahead of themselves and this rumour seems to be snowballing (out of control).

A more senior person than me asked this question in Nov and someone very much higher up than him said NO maybe when we get the A350! It does get looked at from time to time and always shoved to the back again, don't hold your breath on this one it might be a while yet!

[wanna_be_there]

Well that just got 2 sales reps in SFO the sack.

Why, it seemed to be a presentation set up by CX, and it did not say who the presentation was aimed at. Do we know for certain the 2 reps got the sack or pure speculation?

There seems a lot of excitement about this alledged service, I think some are getting ahead of themselves and this rumour seems to be snowballing (out of control).

Did you not see the FB entry? Its from Cathay Pacific themselves, and its states:

Please stay tuned for our official press release

It was specific to MAN, and if there were no plans to serve MAN, surely they would have put 'we do not have plans to serve Manchester at this point', or lines to that effect.
Also, if they were referring to other possible routes, surely they would have said 'for official press releases'

Yes yes, could be said we are reading too much into that, but surely if MAN was 'deffinatly not on the cards', they would have just said so there and then?

Spanners, Whilst Im not questioning that you know well connected people in CX, but could this just be a case of info that has not been cascaded down to you yet? Plenty of people in all sorts of companies that are not privvy to certain information.

[dwlpl]

Did you not see the FB entry? Its from Cathay Pacific themselves

Can you point me in the direction of the page you refer to?

I have just gone on the Cathay Pacific Airway FB page and found no mention (going back to DEc 18th) of it or any post from 'Simon' either.

[wanna_be_there]

Hopefully it will work:

Welcome to Facebook

Posted 17 hours ago, make sure filters are set to Cathay Pacific and others and you 'like' the page. Here is the full transcript if it works:

Hi Cathay Pacific. Some CX sales reps in San Fransisco are saying MAN-HKG will be opened by the end of 2011, is this true?17 hours ago ˇLikeUnlike ˇ Comment ˇ View Feedback (1)Hide Feedback (1)

•  
  • Cathay Pacific Airways Hi Simon! Thank you for your inquiry. Please stay tuned for our official press release. Thanks. 9 hours ago ˇ LikeUnlike ˇ
    
    

[Skipness One Echo]

When was the last regular Cathay passenger sevice out of MAN and what was the routing? Am I right in thinking they never managed to go MAN-HKG direct and daily? (yet!)

I was looking at my slides of the old green scheme CX B744 taxi-ing for '24 yesterday.

Cheers

[Ringwayman]

Think it was the A340s on CX291/290 routing via ZRH in 2000. And no, never operated non-stop with intermediate stops at various times FRA, CDG, AMS and ZRH. Became daily around 1997 but think it might have been 4 weekly at the end?

[Code 100]

I travelled MAN-CDG-HKG in mid November 2000, returning one week later via CDG. Both journeys were on a 747-?00.

The cleaners came on board outbound at CDG and cleaned around us - no disembarking.