MANCHESTER - 9
I cannot understand why Saudi Arabia has been promoted by Saudia and Flynas. It's not as though you can just visit the place as a tourist. Granted it has history dating back thousands of years but if you want to visit you usually have to have a work visa of sorts. Medina is probably the only reason that comes to mind where Hajj visas are issued for this restricted market. Then it sometimes takes weeks to get one. The country is probably the most conservative of the region with penalties for certain crimes that will leave your head rolling.
Having said that good luck to the carriers.
Having said that good luck to the carriers.
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Bit of blurb referencing Manchester in the FT yesterday.
BBC helps revive Manchester?s vibe - FT.com
At least it reaffirmed Manchester as largest metropolis after London, although also reference a missing San Francisco link
ref post 2945; I cannot understand why Saudi Arabia has been promoted by Saudia and Flynas
This is a shot in the dark but I think it might possibly be because both airlines are based there !
BBC helps revive Manchester?s vibe - FT.com
At least it reaffirmed Manchester as largest metropolis after London, although also reference a missing San Francisco link
ref post 2945; I cannot understand why Saudi Arabia has been promoted by Saudia and Flynas
This is a shot in the dark but I think it might possibly be because both airlines are based there !
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The FlyNas scheduled service was always destined to be heavily dependent on Manchester-originating traffic. Few to none of those paying customers who flew out aboard Wednesday's inaugural could be expected to return home on today's flight. Let's give the service a chance to build up and prove itself before pointing accusingly at the loads aboard pseudo-positioning legs. This situation is really little different from the first couple of flights of the season returning near-empty to Manchester from Corfu or Crete.
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Few to none of those paying customers who flew out aboard Wednesday's inaugural could be expected to return home on today's flight. Let's give the service a chance to build up and prove itself before pointing accusingly at the loads aboard pseudo-positioning legs.
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This situation is really little different from the first couple of flights of the season returning near-empty to Manchester from Corfu or Crete
The flynas route is nothing like our Corfu, Crete or any other seasonal charter. The inbound flights could just as easily been booked up with those from the subcontinent visiting the relatives in the North West, albeit on a slightly smaller scale than the traffic going the other way. Or even Saudi's looking for cheap deals to come and watch the footy and go shopping etc. Im sorry but 6 and 19 pax on the first 2 inbounds is pitiful whichever way you try and word it, and like I say, as a pro-MAN, pains me to say it.
The Crete and Corfu charters don't normally fill up on Greeks visiting the UK before the summer rush, however.....
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Re flynas, have to agree with LAX_LHR on this, and the same source on another site gave the outbound load as only 10.
I don't know what vehicles the airline is selling tickets through or how much advertising of the route there has been over there. I wonder what the early loads on LGW were like - although they don't have direct competition as far as I know, there are of course flights to LHR.
The early outbound loads on Saudia from MAN were reportedly very good but inbound loads were much thinner but better than flynas. I seem to recall a figure as low as 23 but a couple of others over 50.
I don't know what vehicles the airline is selling tickets through or how much advertising of the route there has been over there. I wonder what the early loads on LGW were like - although they don't have direct competition as far as I know, there are of course flights to LHR.
The early outbound loads on Saudia from MAN were reportedly very good but inbound loads were much thinner but better than flynas. I seem to recall a figure as low as 23 but a couple of others over 50.
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If they are reporting 50% to 60% loads for the whole set of new routes, then I would be inclined to think LGW/Casablanca flights are going to be at least three quarters full to make up for the shortfall here
as for CX, I too have seen their City Centre advertising last week and also ads in the Evening News. I wonder if they will maintain these level of advertising for the next 6 months but must applaud them in spreading the news of their services as widely and as early as they have.
as for CX, I too have seen their City Centre advertising last week and also ads in the Evening News. I wonder if they will maintain these level of advertising for the next 6 months but must applaud them in spreading the news of their services as widely and as early as they have.
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If the FlyNas loads outbound from MAN are as low as reported here then that would certainly be cause for concern going forward. But if Saudia are getting some excellent loads (as we are told) on the same route, then the city-pair cannot be the problem. Awareness and ticket distribution will have to be addressed quickly before losses mount. Has FlyNas agreed ticketing deals with agencies serving the key ethnic markets? If not, are such deals in the pipeline?
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Was just searching the flythomascook.com website and couldn't help but notice Boston has re-appeared in the 'Thomas Cook' routes.
Its not viewable on the home page, but search say, Manchester-Verona for Summer 2015, and it will give a 'where we fly' drop down box due to those flights not being available. Boston is in there.
No Smoke without fire and the Brochures are far from the final versions so could be added if there is some slack for a short long haul flight.......
Its not viewable on the home page, but search say, Manchester-Verona for Summer 2015, and it will give a 'where we fly' drop down box due to those flights not being available. Boston is in there.
No Smoke without fire and the Brochures are far from the final versions so could be added if there is some slack for a short long haul flight.......
Boston would be a great route addition, much wiser than competing on NYC. Boston is only a short hop too, (relatively). In fact I'm surprised that Jet2 have not tested this out as a seasonal longhaul schedule, they seem to like the odd transatlantics.
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Disappointing Flynas showing non op tomorrow .
I suppose what with the growth this year in long haul one or two are inevitably going to fail.
Flynas have simply not done their sums or got the requisite contacts in the ethnic travel departments or so it seems.
Doesn't help to have an easy connection Karachi- Manchester but not so the return.
Right now the return flights seem to go on to Kuala Lumpur with many hours lay over for Pakistan and lets face it Saudi really isn't cut up and ready to handle significant transit traffic is it !
Unless they have solid bookings for Umrah and Hajj in September they might as well give up me thinks !
I suppose what with the growth this year in long haul one or two are inevitably going to fail.
Flynas have simply not done their sums or got the requisite contacts in the ethnic travel departments or so it seems.
Doesn't help to have an easy connection Karachi- Manchester but not so the return.
Right now the return flights seem to go on to Kuala Lumpur with many hours lay over for Pakistan and lets face it Saudi really isn't cut up and ready to handle significant transit traffic is it !
Unless they have solid bookings for Umrah and Hajj in September they might as well give up me thinks !
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Boston is only a short hop too
Could be quite a nice little route if it does come off. Destinations wise, to say we are not a capital city nor a hub/base for the flag carrier, we are not that far behind Dublin now USA wise, which is not a bad place to be.
suppose what with the growth this year in long haul one or two are inevitably going to fail.
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I can't help but feel they may have been able to carve a slightly different market if flynas had stuck to the original plan of serving Riyadh
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The TCX flights have been quite difficult to decipher given the seasonal changes between the GLA peak period, then shifting the aircraft to STN and so on.
What I can gather so far:
5 long haul aircraft required on Monday's, Friday's and Sunday's.
There seems to be 2 gaps that a MAN-BOS flight could run, which is Tuesday and Saturday, and depending how the LGW long haul flights rotate (ei a MAN based machine or the 5th 'floating' aircraft that goes to STN/GLA), there could possibly be room for a Thursday flight too.
This is of course, based purely on long haul flying and the aircraft could well do a short haul mission instead, which I have not looked into. I know the A330 has been used on MAN-DLM this winter so could well do something similar in 2015.
However, it is encouraging that there are at least 2 gaps where Boston 'could' be run.
What I can gather so far:
5 long haul aircraft required on Monday's, Friday's and Sunday's.
There seems to be 2 gaps that a MAN-BOS flight could run, which is Tuesday and Saturday, and depending how the LGW long haul flights rotate (ei a MAN based machine or the 5th 'floating' aircraft that goes to STN/GLA), there could possibly be room for a Thursday flight too.
This is of course, based purely on long haul flying and the aircraft could well do a short haul mission instead, which I have not looked into. I know the A330 has been used on MAN-DLM this winter so could well do something similar in 2015.
However, it is encouraging that there are at least 2 gaps where Boston 'could' be run.