Any news on the slots for winter 2005/2006 yet? What can we expect? Also, did the Minsk flights ever start?

Indeed the Belavia flights have started, at the beginning of June with 735s as planned (weekly on a Monday). Punctuality is very good, but no idea of the loads.

I want a Pret a Manger at Manchester Airport!

Liverpool Losses..?
 

A tweety bird tells me Liverpool is to lose its FlyBe Glasgow service from August, and it's Ryanair Nimes service....any truth in it?

I believe this has already been mentioned in the Liverpool thread, Nimes is probably being mentioned after the rumours of the possibility of Nimes closing, but I'm told that the airport has enough funds for the next 12 months or so, so services will probably continue for now.

Glasgow has indeed gone for the Winter.

Perhaps we'll see an increase in presence of FlyBe at MAN?

If I remember correctly FlyBe wanted to operate from Manchester but couldn't gain the slots it needed.

That's probably why they went to Liverpool.

Therefore, as Liverpool seems to be going well for them and the slot situation doesn't seem any different at Manchester I think it is unlikely.

Hapag Lloyd Express
 

HLX are to increase Stuttgart-Manchester this winter to 5 per week.Last winter it was 3 a week. Currently they operate 4 per week. A quick look at HLX.COM confirms that the new flights are now on sale.

Still no word on Air Berlin? This doesn;t look like it will be good news then.

What we need are more flights to Eastern Europe! Brno, Wroclaw, Gdansk, Vilnius....the ones we have are packed everyday!

I guess a lot of that market and the Baltics is also becoming Ryanair territory and with them selling so well from Liverpool they should be adding more soon. As its only 30 minutes from MAN, the northwest will then be well served and we won't have to go to STN for these flights.

Northwest to Detroit...?

Load of ar5e! Official.:*

Northwest
 

That's certainly not what I have heard from my sources, TURIN. With all rumours on here, a flat denial oftens means it will happen.

Keep watching.....

Air Berlin to cease ops for Winter 05/06
 

As per a previous post I also received a similar email from AB PR

QUOTE

thank you for your mail.

We do not offer flights to Manchester in Winter 2005/2006. That why you cannot book the flights for February 2006.

Best regards,

Silke Manitz

UNQOUTE

So lets discuss , why could'nt Air Berlin make it work from MAN ?
Did MAPLC goof ? This airline has just been named Europe's best LOCO carrier , and it is airport policy to become the North's airport of choice for LOCO airlines , see press release below ....

Press Releases
Airline ranking: Air Berlin is No. 1 in Europe


08. Juni 2005
Air Berlin is Europe’s best low-cost carrier. That is the result of an independent passenger survey carried out by Skytrax, a London-based consultancy. More than 12 million business travellers and holidaymakers from 94 countries took part in the survey.

In the European rankings Air Berlin was in first place, followed by Vueling (Spain) and Easyjet (UK). Worldwide Air Berlin is in second place, after JetBlue (USA) and ahead of Virgin Blue (Australia).

According to “Spiegel Online” the respondents rated the airlines both on the ground and in the air. At the airport it was the check-in and boarding procedure, as well as the way the companies handled delays, and also the friendliness of staff that were closely assessed. During the flight it was a question of onboard facilities, the condition of the aircraft and the service provided by the staff. Additional points were awarded for cleanliness, comfortable seats and good food.

Air Berlin’s managing director, Joachim Hunold, commented: “At the national level Air Berlin has already come out on top in a number of surveys. However, the fact that we have achieved first place in the most representative survey that has ever been conducted at an international level – and by a British company too – is a true accolade and an honour. We will do everything we can to maintain our high standard of quality.”


:confused:

From this corner of South Manchester TCM I would say that lack of advertising was top of the list of Air Berlin's mistakes. The occasional visible advert contrasted starkly with Jet2's poster campaign. I would say both airlines started from the same point - hardly known in the Northwest of England, which Jet2 realised and Air Berlin seemingly didn't. Being well known in Germany doesn't mean that your average Brit has ever heard of you.

I also suspect that they didn't win many friends among the city break fraternity, as from the UK end finishing your time away with a 6am flight isn't a good move IMHO.

It would be interesting to know the proportion of UK originating traffic against the German end, as I would think that the UK end would be higher, and points 1 and 2 above would discourage them.

In contrast HLX seem to be doing OK, but they have a stable schedule, and fly in the early evening which must help. I would have thought that given the mix of AB's traffic sending an aircraft on a bucket and spade run from Berlin to (say) Palma, followed by a lunchtime flight to/from MAN would have been a better bet. They seemed to realise that later on judging from the schedule changes they made, but I suspect that the writing was already on the wall by then.

You would hope that the MAN management would realise the above, and have pointed this out to AB, but who knows.

GB Airways
 

I hear rumour from a usually reliable source that GB Airways (BA to the man on the street) could well be flying to Sharm el Sheikh and Rhodes soon from Manchester.....

Sounds about right. GB to have 4 aircraft based at MAN by next summer.
Bring it on.:ok:

July update - and new route
 

MAplc have released their July update and I see the following announcement that seems to have been missed on this forum.

"Bulgaria Air will operate a new twice-weekly service from Sofia on Thursdays and Sundays. The new flights are planned to commence on 2nd October and will be operated with the B737-300 aircraft offering 148 seats. Flights will arrive at 14:45 and depart 1 hour later at 15:45."

Figures for June show a 5.65pc increase in terminal passengers to 2,232,951. Air Transport movements were up by 6.3pc to 21778 - that's a daily average of 726 (or an hourly movement rate of 30 per hour when spread over a 24 hour period).

Scottie Dog

Air Berlin is staying on in Manchester in the Winter.
But only with flights to Paderborn and Hamburg.
They are now bookable.

Thats relatively good news, but it seems amazing that Air Berlin could not make Berlin work from Manchester. Granted their slots were terrible, but from what I saw of the passenger profile they did a brisk trade in ex=pat Poles.

Maybe Dresden or Leipzig may be a better option..?

I was talking to a passenger at MAN a few days ago who had just arrived with LS. The pax was very impressed with the service it seemed, and mentioned that the crew had told him that LS were looking at expanding their route network from Manchester even further, and that one of the cabin crew mentioned New York as a possible future route. During the conversation with the cabin crew member, the passenger told me that the supervisor came along and told the more junior cabin crew member \'not to give away all our secrets!\'.

Certainly LS could make it as far as NYC with a 757, but o people want lo-co to the USA?

Seemed quite popular with the punters the last time it was tried by that chap with the DC10s.

The banks weren't too keen in the end, mind you. :ooh: