Manchester - 3
 

Manchester Part 2 now locked. Previous posts here.
http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?t=225259

Does anyone know whether the DL JFK route has been pulled for the winter. I am booked on this flight going out on 01/11, returning 06/11. When trying to book for a friend the outbound on 01/11 is showing okay but returning 06/11 is via ATL. I have recieved no e mails from the outfit I booked with informing me of any changes to the return flight.

Thanks in advance

NICK B----no it has not been pulled,the search you are using is showing you the cheapest fare available, which is to return via atlanta. The direct flight coming back is about £30.00 more in economy.

Regards
peakp

And about 6 hrs fly time shorter! Atlanta is in the wrong direction for JFK - MAN.

Terminal 2
 

Dropped daughter off early this morning and I have never before seen such queues at check-in and to pass through security.

I must say the organisation was excellent under such difficult circumstances. Well done to all concerned.

July Provisional Pax Figures
 

From the CAA website - 2,422,504 pax, up 1% on last July. Rolling year is 22,245,675, up 2.6%.

Meanwhile, Stansted continues its surge past Manchester. July figures show 2,391,507 pax, up 10%. Stansted's rolling year shows 23,166,399, up 6.7%.

Not a good year at Ringway.

Regarding the MAN v Stansted passenger figures, I believe that its going to be short lived as soon as RYR starts to feel the pinch with rising fuel prices, the bargain basement passengers that currently artificially inflate the figures will vanish. I know MAN has LOCO carriers but it also has a much more stable portfolio of flights.

Why do I think this ? well its to do with my circle of friends who travel extensively, they all say that Ryanair is only an option when the fares are rock bottom, so if they all say that (about 20) presumably the same feeling is widespread.

Discuss !

MAN Queues
 

Does anyone have real-world experience of current queue time at MAN for BD shuttles to LHR?

I'm due my bi-weekly trip on BD581 this Monday @ 0640. Up until two weeks ago I had this down to a fine art. On-line check in on Sunday, up and out of house by 0520, arrive, park up, terminal, lounge for a coffee, on to flight.

Now, I do expect to have to arrive a little earlier this time around, but at 0640 in the morning would I realistically have to expect to be there 0.5, 1, 1.5, 2 hrs early? If its a long wait I'll give it a miss and drive South. I know there will be the 'official' advice of arrive early, but I really don't fancy getting up at 3am for a flight when I could wait until 5 and drive instead.

Whether or not the STN boom is shortlived or not, that airport will still have had the benefit of having them along with the jobs they have brought. Hopefully it will continue thus. Although MAN isn't exactly quiet, growth seems a bit stagnant, particularly longhaul. MAN really needed a big LOCO, by which I mean Easyjet.
Also STN must be looking very profitable for BAA, 23,000,000 plus through 1 terminal smaller than MAN T2.

So is it true Manchester is to get t three times a week service to Bangkk this winter? Which airline? Thai?

TG Chairman said in an interview earlier this year that they hoped to be serving MAN by or in 2007. They have been supposedly coimg for years (a la CX) so I'll believe it when I see it.

Having said that, he did also say they were trying to do it with a stop in India, which they couldn't sort out. He believes they will shortly have the right aircraft for the route so it they do start it will probably be a 2 class 772ER.

Interesting that TG are looking to route through India. CX were reported in the HKG press to be looking at the same routing for HKG/MAN, following their failure to gain traffic rights for Moscow/Manchester sector. Would guess that this may well happen as most Asian airlines are increasing their regional flights to the sub-continent.

Hopefully so. However, it's curious how airlines never let anything whatsoever block the way of getting into LHR, or expanding at LHR (i.e. ANZ 2nd daily, the 4th QANTAS etc) yet for MAN it's one excuse/reason/problem after another, year after year after year. If the constantly mentioned carriers really wanted MAN they'd be at MAN. I hope things pick up for the future, or will completely give up on the place.

I understand that flyGlobespan are to use and be based at Terminal 2 from this winter, which is strange as I would have thought T1 would have had more capacity for a longhaul arriving at 1945 hours.

That'll clog up the baggage and immigration with a DXB, DOH and CPT all within the hour!

My Data-
Arrive about 0.5/1hr earlier, queues arnt too bad any more.
:ok:

Any ideas if the Luzair Tristar will still be there tommorow?

angelwings thanks for the response.

I arrived at 0530 for the 0640 (usually get there on the dot a 0610). 15 mins to do the bag drop :eek: , 15 more mins in the queue through the 'BA' control in T3. Shoes, belt, etc. at the scanner - just like being in the good old USA. :bored:

Made it to the lounge with plenty to spare. Boarding began around 0610. Departed on time but with a low load factor for a Monday AM flight.

So, 30 mins extra, at 0530 would be prudent. I counted that from the point of arrival at the BMI bag drop area, to sitting in my seat I had made contact with 10 'officials'. Is this a record? :uhoh:

Back to LHR this PM for the return. That will be fun.

Why? Supposed to be a modern international airport. Surely T2 can handle 3 flights in one hour.

Evening arrivals into T2 from DXB, DOH and CPT is just what T2 needs, especially in the winter. After the North American/Singapore morning arivals and departures, the place can seem a little surplus to requirements. We've all seen it on a wet Wednesday in February with just a KLM F100 and an Air France 319 parked up.

Roof collapse in T1
 

Those of you that work in Termainl 1 and have been in today will have seen the chaos caused by the wet weather. The roof in the departures lounge, close to Alpha Shopping collapsed under the strain of the heavy rain and submerged a section of the airside shopping area under around a foot of water. The departures lounge was closed for 90 minutes and pax that had already proceeded through security were escorted down B Pier. The arrivals area also suffered a similar problem, with the baggage reclaim area and arrivals hall also submerged in water and all arriving passengers into Terminal 1 had to be bussed to either T2 or T3 and collect their luggage from there. The majority of airside retail and catering outlets remained closed throughout the rest of the afternoon and into the evening as the area was cleared up. Only Starbucks and Boots were reopened and pax had to access the far side of the departure lounge by using the small passageway that runs behind Burger King. A chaotic situation that left many flights delayed, yet the consequencies could have been alot worse. Maybe this will open the eyes of the Senior management and push them into spending money on this ageing terminal. The whole place is in need of some investment. Time after time i have seen buckets of water placed under leaking roofs after a downpour and yet nothing has been done. Not to mention the atrocious state of the carpets, seating area's and gates. Today has proved the extent of neglect on basic care and maintenance and it's about time something was done about it.

Absolutley correct FlyZB the place is falling to bits. Even La Senza has a small pond outside it this afternoon. I know its a lingerie shop but brings a whole new meaning to water sports!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Was looking ominous this afternoon when I spotted about 20 trays which they use to catch the 'drips' piled up on the ramp opposite Travelex in T1.

As I am sure the MAN management would be only too quick to point out, the cash pile isn't a bottomless pit! Be aware that they were threatened with removal of aerodrome licence by the CAA recently. This has lead to a complete re-vamp of certain taxi-ways. Not only that, the Health & Safety are also dishing out some pain at the moment.

Not that I am leaping to the defence of MAN, but there needs to be priorities placed on the cash. A leaking roof is nothing next to a crumbling taxi-way, even if both are a result of under investment over the years. One causes a few problems, the other shuts the airfield. Which would you like?

Having said that, I read in my local paper the other week about how much Geoff Muirhead earns, something in the 4 grand a week region. Perhaps he would like to donate some of this cash pile to a new terminal roof fund. Like most major business these days, this is at a time of the rank and file being squeezed harder and harder.

I agree that MAN could do with a big orange loco. Problem is that EZY are well entrenched at LPL. It would be more hassle than it is worth for them to move. LPL have invested a lot of money into the airport infrastructure in recent years, most of it based on EZY and FR continuing operations there. I imagine that if EZY said they were moving up the M56 there would be an oversized carrot dangled to persuade them to stay.

MAN needs more good quality long haul traffic. I remember seeing Quantas in here as a kid, are there not enough pax using this service from MAN to justify them coming back? It strikes me that MAN sits back and waits for the business to come and knock on the door. Customers are the blood of any company, without them you have no company. Perhaps they need to be more pro-active in gaining new business. And if they already do that, then perhaps they need to do it with a more public face, so that the name becomes more noticed on the international stage !!!

Oh that's so likely.:hmm: The terminals are a disgrace they are just downright dangerous when the roof leaks onto the nice shiny floors. I wonder how MAPLC will like it when someone tries to sue them for an injury caused by them slipping on a wet floor which has no "wet floor" sign on it? That'll look good for furtue business. Maybe MAPLC should spend some of the income from all the retail on repairing the roofs properly and not keep bodging it with layers of tar.

MA re-roofed most of T1 in summer 2004 and 2005.

But it doesn't hide the fact that during most of the 1990s when Geoff Muirhead was directly responsible as Chief Executive, most of the estate was under-invested in for maintenance. The T1 roof, and the aprons and taxiways are just the visible consequences of that, but you can also add the as-yet unseen disasters that are the T1 multi storey car park, T1 Arrivals landside, T1 Tower Block (aircon and asbestos), Pier B (asbestos), Olympic House (sick building syndrome and leaking cladding), Commonwealth House (leaking cladding), 4M (no tenants :O :eek: ) and more.

MA is behaving like a typical corporation - fat cat payrises for those in the ivory tower, decades of under-investment, excessive profits going straight back to the shareholders (local councils who spend it on lefty non-jobs), continual erosion of workers' pay and rights, and reductions in union power. The consequences are now coming home to roost - dangerous facilities, industrial unrest, difficulty recruiting and keeping staff, and worst of all the customers are voting with their feet, leaving the company in serious trouble. Don't forget that MA mortgaged both EMA and MAN to the hilt to buy EMA and BOH and that debt still needs paying back.

It is time for the Board and Chairman to take a long look at its senior management team and make some hard decisions, perhaps a bit harder than just getting rid of Mr Spooner and shuffling the deckchairs a bit.

My sympathies go to MF, DQ and all the others who had to put right another of GM's messes by getting T1 up and running again. As ever, it's the true workers who have to put right the poor judgement of management.

The reroofing was just putting tar down on top of exisiting material, you could see it quite clearly from our offices. Cheapest option has resulted in an enormous cost now. Bot good practice.

Yes Lex, the job was rolling down new felting and tar like one would put on a domestic flat roof. The problem is probably that due to leaks for so many years before that, the structure underneath was getting damaged and weakened.

Motto to Mr Muirhead: You can't polish a turd. The clever bit is to stop it becoming a turd in the first place.

I can imagine one or two people involved in that project hunting for phone directories to stuff down the back of their pants.... MA loves nothing more than a good witch-hunt and blame-allocation process.

Manchester International
 

Blue sky thinking! Why do BA (& BD) shuttle passengers to LHR to connect with long haul flights? Heathrow is congested & other carriers are fighting for slots there. So why not shuttle the opposite way and develop international routes from Man? Include Stanstead in this idea (huge N.E. London and East Anglia catchment area) avoiding grief of crossing London by road or train. I recognise that Manchester's own catchment area isn't sufficient to attract many long haul operations at present but provide it as an attractive alternative and actively market connections to Southampton, the south west of England, Scotland & Ireland as well as those insular folk south of Watford. The CAA, BAA & Government are sadly obsessed with London :rolleyes: .

My view, fwiw:

Most pax to/from LHR actually want to go to London or the surrounding area. They are also more likely to sit at the front, in the seats which actually make the money for the airlines.

MAN has a pretty good long haul network for a regional airport, but the demand is more for economy than business/first class, and the airlines don't make much from that.

In a nutshell, any longhaul destination to the UK will yield more £ to/from LHR than MAN because more pax come from, or want to be, in London in the first place, and they're more likely to buy a premium priced seat.

Exceptions are to/from Pakistan, due to the large immigrant communities in MAN's catchment area, and Emirates et al which seem to do quite well ex-MAN.

Over to the airline boys n girls for a better answer than this one. :ok:

Daynehold the suttles exist because of the exisiting routes ex:LHR, i.e. Air New Zealand, so good business sense to connect to them.

There is quite a good LH market from MAN as evidenced by AA/BD/SQ/EK, etc. I know the demand for ORD from MAN is strong and bmi's Las Vegas service does really well. I do think there is enough demand for a direct LAX or SFO, that would be a brilliant point to point and also great for transferring pacific pax.

Every other airport in the UK has got it's arrivals and departures info on their websites back to normal except Manchester, which is still using a pathetic XL spread sheet,with details in alphabetical order for destinations and not detailing all flights.

Muppets! :mad:

It`s been back to normal for several days now

G-I-B

Try it NOW then!

no problem direct to arrivals and departures

G-I-B

Airport website
 

IB4138
Tried 10mins after your posting and its working fine. Like G-I-B says it has been up and running for a few days now, although it was out of action for a good while. Took longer to fix that most other airports but thats ManAirport for you nowadays (not much works as it should, or as efficently).

Playamar

Well how come at 0730 CET this morning, I got the spread sheet, with flights for the 26th August on then ?

It appears to be hit and miss.

Airport Website
 

IB4183/Playamar2,

I agree it's not good MAN were unable to provide a live flight information service via the web at a critical time. However, in the scheme of things, it seems they have done a good job of managing the crisis in an overall context. Let's be fair.

http://www.manchestereveningnews.co....or_crisis.html

AeroMANC.
:ok:

Longhaul through Heathrow.
I would rather fly from MAN any time but now that malaysian have left the fold i find i can get business fares to the far east and oz cheaper from LON than MAN.I travel to the airport by hire car so the cost of getting to the airport is about the same although even the land journey to MAN is much less hassle than LHR or LGW.However as i pick up my own costs the price decides and lower cost deals with the decent airlines don't seem to include MAN.. .

1DC makes a valid observation. People always go on about the lack of premium pax ex MAN. A random search for a J class ticket MAN-HGK for Sept, best price was AFR at £1754, & DLH @ £2131. However, sames dates ex LHR will give you a J class seat with DLH for only £1545 - some 600 quid less than from MAN.It's not surprising then that potential premium pax vote with their wallets & trundle down to an already over congested airport.:confused:

Who flies MAN-HKG direct then? Perhaps that extra £600 is for the return MAN-LON-MAN bit!:ugh:

Nobody flies direct MAN-HKG. The AFR fare is via CDG & the HKG via FRA.
Well done at completely missing the point of the post !!!!!:ugh: :ugh: :ugh: :ugh: