MANCHESTER - 9

[LAX_LHR]

All this talk of slots has made me look in the archives to see 'services that never were' (routes applied for but never operated):

2003:

EUjet applied to base 6 aircraft at MAN for various Euro routes
Delta 2nd daily ATL service
Mahan air 1 weekly to Tabriz with A310/A300
Lufthansa sixth daily Munich (never realised it got to 5 daily)
LTE applied for daily A320 to Barcelona
Malaysian wanted to go 6 weekly B747-400
Afriquayah to Tripoli

2004:

Delta applied for 2nd daily ATL again
Iberia 2 daily MD87 to MAD
AV8 to DEL/DUR/PLZ with B767-300
Malev daily BUD nightstopper with B737
Icelandair based B767 to operate CPT!
Virgin express 2 daily to BRU
Afriquayah to Tripoli

2005:

Afriquayah to Tripoli (notice a pattern here)
Air India 3 weekly DEL-MAN-YYZ and return (went to BHX)
Swiss daily year round GVA
Malev 3 daily to BUD
Royal Jordanian 2 weekly A310 to AMM
Cathay pacific 4 weekly to HKG via SVO
Centralwings daily to Warsaw
Easyjet 5 based B737-700

2006:

Atlas Blue 2 weekly to Marrakech
Condor daily MUC with A320
Meridina to CAG/OLB up to 4 weekly
Lithuanian 3 weekly to VNO
Qatar 2nd daily
United daily IAD with B767-300
Blue1 2 weekly to HEL
Air Baltic to VNO 3 weekly
Transaero 1 weekly to VKO

More to follow.....

[steve platt]

Im sure back in 2004 AV8 did operate to those said destinations..... i remember transporting there crews about..... they didnt last for long tho!

Good news about saudia am glad there returning and they have been in touch with my office for transport needs so its all good..... also good news about egypt being all year round tho i was confident that was happening.....

[Sholto Douglas]

LAX_LHR

Those were the heady days when the initial slot requests always looked so attractive and yet, when hand-back time came along, we were always left with a feeling of having been let down. There was however always the lure of another summer and the promise of more interesting flights of fantasy to come.

[Mr A Tis]

Steve, AV8 did operate to CPT some days direct, some days via DUB- often the return did a tech stop in PMI. (2004)
They used an Icelandair B763 TF-FIB.
As far as I know, they did not operate the applied for DEL/DUR/PLZ

[steve platt]

Thanks Mr a tis...... i thought they did.... im also pretty sure they had a 757 for euro charters..... they were indeed the days

[chaps2011]

Steve yes they did have a B757 and I think that was the last part of the operation to close, was a rather fetching colour scheme
Photos: Boeing 757-23A Aircraft Pictures | Airliners.net

Chaps

[LN-KGL]

Due AV8's unsuccessful AOC application, the 752 was only used for weekly pilot training around Manchester. On 4 May 2004 G-OAVB was flown to Southend for repaint to Astreaus colours. The last time I saw her in AV8 colours was during the weekend 1-2 May 2004, at that time she was parked up to the North of Terminal 2 (today's temporary car park area).

[spannersatcx]

Any sign of the Cathay B747-8F?

They have flown to europe, just not as far as MAN as yet. The ERF's and -8's will make up the freighter fleet with all the BCF's and RR powered ones scrapped/sold. Should the freight market ever pick up you might see more than the 2 a week at MAN at present!

[roverman]

Freight vs. Pax, a tale of two markets

Freight has always under-performed at MAN relative to the passenger throughput. There was a brief bubble back in 2008-9 when we hit c.170k tonnes p.a., followed by the most spectacular collapse to c.100k tonnes within 3 or 4 years. Historically, 100k has been something of a ceiling, hard to break through despite booming passenger traffic. Passengers are firmly back in growth now and within 10% of the all time high, yet freight is nowhere, although there are signs that we may have hit the bottom now. Cathay at 2 or 3 per week would have been unthinkable 5 years ago. MAN is a strange animal, with a mismatch between passengers and freight traffic. Northerners seem keen once again to go on holiday and travel on business, but not to spend lots on Chinese imported goods. I suppose it also has something to do with being on the edge of the EU. Freight is quite happy to travel some distance on a truck to be consolidated at a point of departure, whilst the self-loading variety is not.

[Capetonian]

I flew out of MAN T1 earlier this week. Checkin (Jet2) and security were fast and efficient despite the long queues, which moved fast and were well controlled.

Then the horrible walk through the shopping mall to get to the departure area. This really annoys me, I am not interested in buying 'duty free' (which isn't) and resent having to force my way through a maze of perfume, fags, booze and Toblerone whilst being held up by fat people with huge baskets blocking my way and sales people waving stuff in my face in a misguided attempt to buy stuff I don't want.

Unless I've missed something, there isn't a 'direct' route to get to the departure gates without being subjected to the 'in your face' shopping mall experience. There should be. This applies to many other airports but MAN appeared worse in this respect than many others.

Apart from that, a good airport experience.

[All names taken]

Unless I've missed something, there isn't a 'direct' route to get to the departure gates without being subjected to the 'in your face' shopping mall experience. There should be. This applies to many other airports but MAN appeared worse in this respect than many others.

There is. Kind of.

The quickest way through by far is to walk past the Ritazza Coffee place on your right and aim for the far right hand corner of the perfume/booze experience. Then keep as hard right as you can at every opportunity and you will be out in a few seconds.....in to the other shops of course but at least that's more pleasant.

[MKY661]

I flew out of MAN T1 earlier this week. Checkin (Jet2) and security were fast and efficient despite the long queues, which moved fast and were well controlled.

Then the horrible walk through the shopping mall to get to the departure area. This really annoys me, I am not interested in buying 'duty free' (which isn't) and resent having to force my way through a maze of perfume, fags, booze and Toblerone whilst being held up by fat people with huge baskets blocking my way and sales people waving stuff in my face in a misguided attempt to buy stuff I don't want.

Unless I've missed something, there isn't a 'direct' route to get to the departure gates without being subjected to the 'in your face' shopping mall experience. There should be. This applies to many other airports but MAN appeared worse in this respect than many others.

Apart from that, a good airport experience.

I flew out of T2 a couple of weeks ago and it's basically the same of what you said there Only difference is the distance from security to the Gates is shorter and also there are some gates in the departure lounge itself. Passport Queues can be a nightmare as well when coming back and also surprisingly the queue to get out of the baggage hall was very bad

[brian_dromey]

Something has to pay the bills. These days the actual airport operation is costlier than ever but airlines (and their passengers) want to pay less and less. In the same way airlines charge for coffee, baggage and seat assignments airports need to loom for alternative revenue streams. The question is would you rather walk through a retail store or drive to LPL? Because that is more or less the choice.

[Suzeman]

Freight

Passengers are firmly back in growth now and within 10% of the all time high, yet freight is nowhere, although there are signs that we may have hit the bottom now.

In the past, flown freight throughput has mirrored the economy but about 6 months to a year ahead of published economic figures, so hopefully you are right.

Freight is quite happy to travel some distance on a truck to be consolidated at a point of departure, whilst the self-loading variety is not.

Indeed. It would be interesting to know how the throughput of the airport's transit sheds have done. In a study about 10 yeas ago it was estimated that the throughput in them was about 50% more than the flown figures with freight coming in to be consolidated / broken down on trucks from the SE, Brussels and AMS.

In addition, an unknown amount of air freight from the region was trundling up and down the M6 for consolidation elsewhere.

[pwalhx]

Re Shops: It is exactly the same arrangement in many airports I have been to in the world. I really don't understand the problem as if, like me, you don't want to buy anything you just walk through.

Re Cargo: Speaking as someone who works for a reasonably sized logistics company more freight is moving by sea nowadays rather than air to save costs. Buyers have realised it is better to order earlier or wait a few extra weeks to save a lot of money on freight costs. The growth will be with the integrators and whilst we have feeders with the like of FedEx we are not a hub and that's where volumes would come. Manchester came late to the idea of the benefits of cargo tbh.

[Suzeman]

Cargo

Thanks for the update pwalhx.

[Capetonian]

I really don't understand the problem as if, like me, you don't want to buy anything you just walk through.

The problem is that you can't just walk through in a straight line, you are forced to zig and zag and the aisles are delibrately narrow so that you get held up behind other people. I quite understand the need that airports have to bring in supplementary revenue but there comes a point where they will alienate customers..

[Bagso]

Its as well we rely "northerners" re business/holidays as the NW tourist board have totally abdicated bringing tourists into Manchester despite a tourism boom in Chester etc.

[chaps2011]

Plenty of foreign tourists in Manchester when you walk round and I think
Manchester is about 3rd most visited tourist area in UK

Chaps

[116d]

There's also Liverpool down the road which attracts tourism for the musical and sporting history, and there's also the Lake District further north which is well-served from MAN by rail services to Barrow and Windermere as well as road. MAN, as well as LPL, acts a gateway.