MANCHESTER 1

[MAN2SIN2BKK2FRA]

Originally Posted by LAX_LHR

Thomas Cook Airlines UK - Thomas Cook Airlines launches seventh direct USA route from Manchester Airport ? to San Francisco

San Fransisco officially announced. Boston apparently goes 4 weekly and not the 3 weekly as appeared in the timetable.

Hopefully Thomas Cook can now look into the possibility of developing a small business class cabin of say initially 12 lie flat seats on their A330s.

[MANFOD]

Quite a shock to see them (especially Brady) come out and support something like this in public, so well done to those who arranged it

Quite agree Suzeman. Brady has been much more vociferous in his support of Heathrow expansion than any public comments about MAN - at least those that have been reported.
It's not clear whether Mr Brady is aware or not that Virgin have also announced SFO from MAN but this is a Thomas Cook press release so they are hardly likely to mention the competition.

If TCX do operate BOS 4 x weekly with 322 seats each way (assuming it's an A332) and VS 2 x weekly with 266 seats, I make that a total of 3,640 seats a week in peak season. When AA flew a daily B757 to BOS for a few summers several years ago, it was only about 2,400 weekly seats, so there will be no shortage of capacity.

Now that TCX will be operating both LAX and SFO, it means their holiday packages can offer fly-drive holidays (do they do escorted tours?) flying into one airport and out of the other, something Virgin Holidays won't be able to provide from MAN other than by using DL for a connecting flight at say ATL or JFK. No doubt VS in particular will be keen to attract business travellers onto their premium cabins.

[LAX_LHR]

TCX/VS

The Thomas cook booking engine seems to be a work in progress, as for example JFK shows as a daily flight next summer but not mentioned in the press release as receiving an increase.

Boston seems to be 4 weekly for June only, with the rest of the summer seeing 3 weekly, which is still an increase.

Los Angeles still shows the 2 weekly like this summer at the moment with San Fransisco still not bookable, so, definately a work in progress.

In terms of VS on Boston for a seat comparason, it's also worth noting GDS shows VS going 3 weekly in the peak summer from 28th July, with an extra flight on Fridays. It was briefly bookable on the virgin/delta websites but has since been taken off again. But. As July is a long way off, will probably be added in again.

All in all, a significant increase in US operations from Manchester next summer, and will need to be closely watched given 3 airports are loosing either all or half of their TATL ops next summer (NCL/LCY/LTN).

[All names taken]

Request:

Can someone help me out here please?
A friend has asked me which airlines fly from MAN-BCN thinking that as I fly so often I would know. When I thought about it, I realized I hadn't a clue.
So can anyone provide a definitive list of airlines that currently fly MAN-BCN? (non-stop only / no hubs)
Thanks in advance

[LAX_LHR]

MAN-BCN

Norwegian 2 weekly in the summer
monarch up to 8 weekly Year round
Vueling daily summer 5 weekly winter
Ryanair 2 daily in summer, daily in winter
Jet2 4-5 weekly summer only

Then you also have service to REU/GRO depending on your ultimate destination in the Barcelona area.

[canberra97]

Allnamestaken

Google would have given you the information you asked regarding airlines and flights MAN to BCN after first visiting Wikipedia Manchester Airport listing airlines and destinations, I always find it far more rewarding when you research information yourself!

[Navpi]

Suzeman

The Manchester Massif have all been banned so no chance of seeing bagso here again. Rejoice.

Influence of "former" contributors should not be understated however.

[PAXfips]

What was today's delay mayhem (at least Eurowings) - all a fallout from BA falling apart?

[Manchester Exile]

I flew out of Manchester on Monday, for the first time in a few years. I was flying out of T1 on the 2pm Emirates flight.

It took me an hour to clear T1 security - the worst delay I've had in all of my 35 years of flying. Only US airports come close to that, in my experience. The queue to get through security at Dubai was around 10 minutes.

Am I right in thinking that the T1 security area is where the domestic baggage claim used to be, before the domestic terminal opened in 1989?

I thought that T1 is looking shabby and crowded, so the project to replace it with an expanded T2 is very welcome.

What are the queue's like to get through T2 security compared to T1? I'm curious as to why the delays seem so bad at Manchester compared to all the other airports I regularly travel through (mostly in Australia, Asia and the USA.)

I was unable to check out the Emirates lounge as by the time I got through security, it was time to board. For those who are interested in load factors, it seems there were around 30 seats free on the lower deck of the A380, so probably about 85% full. I was in economy, so don't know how many premium passengers were flying.

[Logohu]

What are the queue's like to get through T2 security compared to T1?

Depends on the time of day. I went through T2 at about 1-30pm for the QR flight and it took less than 10 minutes. Early morning arrival back at T2 was a different story though with QR/HU/CX and a couple of TOM longhauls all arriving together and took over 90 mins to clear. I believe T2 departures is much busier early mornings than in the afternoons.

Not defending MAN but the queues at most major UK airports - outbound and inbound - can be pretty horrific at times especially in the summer. Usually down to not enough Border force staff, or E-gates not working (or people not familiar with them), security lanes unmanned etc. Also much of the terminal infrastructure was designed for a bygone era and hasn't kept up with either demand or all the latest security checks.

Let's face it us Brits have become conditioned to forming an orderly queue for just about anything these days, whereas in other countries there would be a riot !

[Johnny F@rt Pants]

Jet2 4-5 weekly summer only

Nope, Jet2 are year round to BCN.

[All names taken]

Thanks LAX for a concise answer on MAN-BCN
Canberra97 - do you have nothing better to do with your life?

It took me an hour to clear T1 security - the worst delay I've had in all of my 35 years of flying. Only US airports come close to that, in my experience. The queue to get through security at Dubai was around 10 minutes.

Am I right in thinking that the T1 security area is where the domestic baggage claim used to be, before the domestic terminal opened in 1989?

I think you may have been unlucky. I speak as I find (good or bad) but I have been through T1 several times over the summer and the worst delay I have experienced is around 20 minutes - which in my opinion is at the limit of my personal tolerance. I have experienced the overflow security area on the ground floor which is what I think you are referring to. I found that facility fast and efficient and I have to say 'hat's off' to the management for coming up with that solution. I guess it is mainly an early morning solution and is manned as such, meaning it is non-op at other times of the day (?????).
I have traveled through T3 three times in the last three weeks and the security queues have been ok - although the less said about the rest of the T3 'experience' the better.
I haven't been through T2 this summer so can't comment.

[canberra97]

All names taken

'Do you have nothing better to do with your life'

Well to answer that yes I do actually having been to 93 countries, 54 capitals, 376 destinations worldwide, travelled the world five times, flown 286 times and today in charge of 36 Russians, 4 Romanians and 4 Spanish on a day excursion from Southampton to London with passengers from MSC Cruises MSC Splendida my fifth such trip in the last 6 days I think I have a great life thanks with a wonderfull job that has taken me ALL OVER THE WORLD!

Facts are easily obtained and I personally find it far more rewarding when I research it myself.

So how is your life. I bet it's boring

[BDLBOS]

I also used the airport in July arriving on SQ and a return flight on Jet2 to IBZ. I departed home from LHR on SQ 380.
I like the use of new technology as it aids the processes of checking in, self baggage tag printing and bag depositing. Also passport scans etc. Australia is a great model to look at, it used to be a disaster area for International passengers. The problem at MAN is it is not been given a proper chance. There are 5 auto passport gates at arrival at T1 and T2, and they are not enough. It needs to be at least double. The non EU lines flow much faster. Jet2 have introduced the self bag tagging, but many people did not know what it was and stayed in the check in line. My wife and I jumped at the machine, saved us about 20 mins, like I say these systems do work.
T1 security was OK, average for an airport at 2pm, but the terminal itself is terrible and well past it sell by date. No space to sit, same as T3. These two terminals will need to take the growth while T2 is carved up, scares me to think where MAN is headed.
I don't think doing comparisons to worse airports is good to anyone. You should always try to be better than the competition not the same or worse.
T2 at LHR made me think of what MAN T2 will be like, new technology which was working and a lot of walking to get to the SQ gate. Plenty of space and open.
But waiting ten years is not going to be fun for pax if the growth continues, which we all really want.

[PAXfips]

Maximum spent in T1 security was ~10min so far. Cant tell for T2/T3.
Worse is passport control inbound when some 380(s) just landed. Since my last trip in February there have been additional egates being installed (or before?) but most dont have an eligible passport and if the queue is really long there's no way to shortcut the non-egaters.

[chaps1954]

It`s not going to be 10 years for the update it`s just going to be expanded in stages

[BDLBOS]

Chaps, I haven't seen any drawings or stage plans, so I am not sure what the stages are, you may be right. I did have some questions from the TAS meeting which was so well explained recently on the site.

I still don't understand why they would build a new pier back to back with pier c, then lose one side of each? Why not put pier 3 at the Northern end, where they are thinking of building one and still use C, less the end of course.

Terminal 3 issues with rerouting services etc to allow more parking? This is the 21st century, and I am sure these issues are not a ball breaker? The reason I say this, is my concern on future based parking spots as we go through this upgrade as the area around T2 will loose parking spots for pier builds and services etc. Also, I was thinking that actually building a new T3 over the railway line (instant station and access to the trams), then flatten everything across to the existing T3 may be the next upgrade after 2025.

They expect to have potentially 10 extra parking spots over and above what they have today. Is that number based on traffic mix/based today or in 10 years? It still does not seem enough to me. How many will be lost during the rebuild stages?

As I said, I was not privy to the TAS meeting, or seen any of the drawings/plans.

[MANFOD]

The Manchester Massif have all been banned so no chance of seeing bagso here again. Rejoice.
Influence of "former" contributors should not be understated however.

Personally, I appreciate some of the wider discussion on topics that nevertheless still affect MAN and the informed opinions of those and other contributors. Frankly, I'd rather read such comments than the sort of facetious or patronising remarks that find their way on here from time to time.

Anyway, T1:
[QUOTE][It took me an hour to clear T1 security - the worst delay I've had in all of my 35 years of flying./QUOTE]

Did you happen to notice whether all the security lanes were open?
The reason I ask is that I know of someone else who took an hour to get through fairly recently but all the lanes weren't open.

By contrast, earlier in the summer, we were confronted with a very long queue for T1 security but, to my surprise, were through in 35 minutes. Still too long perhaps for some, but all the channels were active. That was at 8 o'clock in the morning. I know the airport took on additional security staff this summer but I just wonder if the rosters are only geared to be fully manned at what are considered 'peak times'.

[azz767]

On a lighter note, the AA54 was EARLY, yes EARLY this morning.

[7griffinjack]

"The trouble with Virgin trains is that there is no competition between London and Manchester and therefore prices are eye-wateringly high in the morning. Someone like RYR could compete on price even when the last bit into central London is (ironically) by train. I would travel to London more often if there was a cheaper alternative than Virgin Trains."

The way that competition on the railways work is that companies bid to run the franchise beforehand. It's not necessarily multiple operators on the same route.