Jet will be codesharing with SN apparently to make use of their new services from BRU. Already announced on the BHX BRU oute so it is said.

What was that posting a few days all about pigs and ham??!!!

What was that posting a few days all about pigs and ham??!!!

Well, as it followed the news of 2 x daily A380's at MAN and with references to Ham, Pork, Trough etc, if I was a betting man I may have a little flutter on it being about Flying Pigs. ;)

Those dreadful taxiways at MAN are hardly Avro Anson ready, let alone A380.

More likely none of them can speak English:eek:

:} Beat me to it... :O

Not bloody likely, the TDM will be out in the check in area bollocking the airlines fot their queues. Too many pax, too little room. Too many pax, too little serviceable equipment, like baggage belts. Obvioulsy none of these issues are down to MAPLC though! T3 is well over capacity, especially first thing. The Gate 3 lounge is usually a nightmare, you can have upto five flights either gated or bussing from there at once!:mad:

Well I sent a on line complaint last night, thought I may have had a reply today but surprise surprise, nothing!!

This does not seem to have been picked up by anybody

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/m...er/6947816.stm

I was just going to mention it. :O

Whatever happened to Airfield's plans for a southside radar malarkey? That's gone quiet. Will this project include it?

Has the radar on the control tower broken yet? It's well past it's replacement/service date.

I will believe it when it happens.

It reminds me of the announcement in June 2005 about extending T2 to the west and everything that went with it, with work to start in 2006.

There have been other proposals as well but they all go quiet and then you find they have been dropped or replaced with something else which also doesn't happen.

I think the management have been taking lessons from politicians. Announcements and spin then everything goes quiet. It looks good at the time but comes to nothing.

What the airport needs is not more shops or other outlets to make money(although the airport needs to make money) but improvements to the airfield, more particularly to the Terminals to provided customers with what they deserve.

You will not get more passengers or flights particularly from major airlines whilst the the airfield (taxiways etc) are inadequate for an airport of MAN's standing or if the Customers have to wait too long for security etc, because of inadequate provision of either equipment or staff. Earlier posts about the state of catering is an example.

It is all well and good having a beautiful Tower as a symbol but the rest of the Airport needs to live up to the status that symbol is trying to portray.

Viscount

Errrmmm, there is a dirty great mast, with a thing spinning on it, on a hillock, south of 23L.
I believe that it is the new SMR.....But I could be wrong :hmm:
Ian, the "new" Tower has been mentioned umpteen times, not neccessarily on here.
watp,iktch

i read this thread with interest and have followed its progress over a few years now. with regards to full service international routes manchester must be capable of significant development over the next year or two, with particular development from asia (cathay came close, thai rumoured for years now and the middle east carriers proving the pax are there). the management would not be doing the north west justice if they cannot secure such services, especially with the economic growth and the stature of manchester as an international city. come on manchester airport!

Cheers Chiglet
Must be going blind or something like that.
Could things happen by summer 2008? or is this a pipe dream
Have always wondered why they have stuck with tower in wrong place to get good view or both runways

Ian

Tower
 

I am led to belive that the ground traffic tower is to become a resturant, just what MAN needs more retail/food :ugh:.

On the upside I have also heard that MAPLC are putting the final plans to the new A/C docking system not sure on a time frame but lets hope it's soon:D.....

http://www.uk-airport-news.info/manc...ews-160807.htm

Just found this news release on the new tower

EK/QR/EY pax for July
 

Just to give a bit of balance especially when considering the May and
June figures, the July 2007 ones are below.

MAN-DXB 45398 pax or 366 per flight or 85% load factor based on 433

MAN-DOH 17563 pax or 283 per flight

MAN-AUH 12182

The 2006 figures were: -

35861 DXB

14442 DOH

10844 AUH

GLA - DXB up to 22634 from 19907 (365 per flight or 845)

BHX - DXB up to 34523 from 27700 (278 per flight or 78%)

BHX did I think have a couple of 772's but mainly 77W's and 332's

All pretty good really.

Pete

EK's 85% load on a 77WHD would be the equivalent of around 55% on an A380HD. Perhaps they are going to hold off the introduction of A380s on the route until the current services show a sustained 90%+ load

Personally I think MAN does need more retail development in order to give customer choice. T2 is a soulless and empty building with not much to do and a boring place if you are there for any length of time. It has one bar, the other one being always closed, one restaurant that is so packed in the morning I've yet to use it and a spattering of shops totally inadequate for the size of the building, 1 currency exchange which has never been staffed when I've needed it and 1 UK£ cash machine that I have yet to see work. T3 is even more boring and dreary, and T1 is, well, dreadful but thankfully being updated.
Yes MAN needs investment in the airfield, it also needs investment in the passenger experience. I can easily spend hours at LHR T4 mooching about, at MAN, forget about it, it's just rubbish as a place to spend any time.

viscont 702
you had better believe it

Autoglide, the comments in your last post reflect exactly what the passengers think. The airport compiles results from "Customer Satisfaction Surveys" every month and lists where it is doing well and the main areas of complaint. Every month the number one moan from pax is the lack of decent catering/retail facilities, including lack of choice and lack of space within the existing units. Other complaints to regularly appear from the survey are lack of seating and the state of the toilets. Both of these issues are being addressed in the T1/2 refurb.

Queuing very rarely appears as a top complaint. Many of you will be surprised about that but queues only affect certain periods of the day and therefore many passengers travelling through MAN will not experience queues either at checkin or at security. They do however experience the lack of airside facilities regardless of what time of day they travel, particularly in T2.

So for those of you who believe MAN doesn't need any more shops, cafes, bars & restaurants, you are very much mistaken.

The existing bars, cafes & "restaurants" are completely under staffed. There seems little point in providing more, if you dont staff the ones you already have.

am led to belive that the ground traffic tower is to become a resturant, just what MAN needs more retail/food .

You are kidding?! MAn has the worst catering facilities of any major UK airport! Especially airside. In the next year I understand that MAN is to get a McDonalds, Pizza Express, Subway and several more outelts. Thank God I say, am totally pissed off woith Boots sandwiches!

Seemed To have touched a nerve here :hmm:.. Yes T1 is in the middle of a much needed overhaul, and yes they are having more retail and food. Many of the posts sum it up, do we need more when the place is under staffed for the units that are in place now, and if they are going to convert the Ground tower is it in the planned refurb. or will be be done at a later date????

But will better/more restaurants make the airport more appealing to new airlines and new business, I don't think so. Surely MAN has to spend more on the ramp side issues thus bringing in the new business so they can fill the new resturants....

If an airline Can't load/unload all these A380 pax people are going on about then they won't come.

So yes I agree that the terminals do need updating inside to make for a better pax experience, but MAN need to develop ramp side at the same rate.....:)

It's all very well adding new catering/retail units, but when you have airbridges that consistently fo tech then that should be the number one priority. The catering at MAN is crap, no bones made about it, but the actual ground handling facilities need more money spending on them first if they are to attract more airlines.

Man - Mad
 

Don't know what anymore on the MAD routes but this is a surprise:

BA is to once again reuse it's B752s on Domestic services to MAN.

From 16/10/07 until further notice:

MAN-LHR
BA1387
BA1395
BA1403

LHR-MAN
BA1382
BA1386
BA1388
BA1396

I thought these aircraft were to be used for new EU-US routes. If they are on the route for the winter season, surely they won't be available for the start of the summer season when they plan NYC-CDG/MAD/BRU (Times). They don't change configuration overnight!

Anyway, just a note. BA 752 back at MAN!!!:D:D:D:D

P.S.

Any truth from A.netter that MAN-IAD/BOS for BA with 752 with new verture? Cheers.

I would expect a MAN-MAD route even more unlikely now that Ryanair are joining EasyJet on the LPL-MAD. To think only months ago, MAN had two a day & now LPL are taking the lead.
As for any new BA longhaul from MAN:rolleyes: Dream on:rolleyes:

If MAN were to attract a large carrier they would certainly be able to make it work.

There is only a 3x weekly increase from LPL. Yes, EZY and FR can attract passengers better than anybody else in Europe, but MAN can certainly attract the passengers against LPL.

Would love it to be IB!:}:E

I'm still sure LS will have it covered from LBA, MAN and NCL by next summer.

However Ryanair will operate a lousy Tue, Thur, Sat LPL - MAD schedule at the not most desirable flight times ever.

Manchester should engage with Vueling in an effort that their first UK route should be MAD - MAN.

Either that or do a rain dance and hope Jet2, BMI or Flybe will introduce the route.

I think the days of the ERJ on the route are gone unless a multi-day flight is introduced. BE won't do it as they cancelled the route in the first place! BMI COULD do it but would need to flights per day with the 145.

LS or WW would be perfect with the 148 seater 733 which would be economically be able to compete with EZY and FR on times and fares. The best bet would be LS as it would be a possible route to open up to all it's other bases and also compete directly with EZY from EDI which it has done so successfully over the past 12 months.

Don't bank on it. Liverpool have sustained a double daily Barcelona for years, but Manchester can't. Look at the whole raft of destinations served by RYR from LPL- destinations, MAN can only dream about.

Zero chance of Iberia returning, the only hope would be their cheapo arm Clickair having a stab - but they have entered the UK market using Heathrow & Edinburgh rather than MAN.

I do think customer service ( to the airlines - ramp facilities) & ( to the pax - terminal experience) has something to do with it.

Nobody would like to see MAN regain the initiative more than me, but somehow, IMHO I still think it's a long way off.

MUFC_fan, what are you on about? The BA 757s never left MAN! They've been operating the Shuttle all this year!

Is there a pattern with BA on the shuttle as you can never work out what is going to operate any flight from day to day and week to week?


Ian

Lousy?

If I were to use the LPL/MAD route for a weekend for example, I would fly out on the Ryanair Thursday morning and return on EZY Sunday evening.

They seem to be planning on a 2012 introduction of 380s to MAN, which isn't exactly rushing it! Think back to the number of flights/pax EK had in 2002, what it is now 5 years later, and what it might be in another 5 years.

In the days BA Cityexpress/Connect operated the MAN - MAD service, does anyone know the load factors they had. I would imagine that it would still be profitable particularly on business class!!!

Parky747.

Having travelled the route four times over the past two years, the flights that I took were full both ways, I used to take the morning departure out on an Embraer which was always full and back again on the 20.20 hrs departure from Madrid,on the last return flight I took the route was opearted by a Bae146-200 and this also was full.

Can't believe Flybe did'nt make a go of it.:ugh:

Shame that nobody is taking a look at this route.
I would certainly use it.

Glen.

Bacon Mad
 

BACON lost many millions of pounds on this route. Longish sector, poor loads, high costs.

I note very little is being said these days about GB at MAN. In theory, with the mighty BA out of the way (obviously subject to any lingering route agreements that might be in place with flyBe), one would assume that it is now open field for GB to do what they like...e.g. MAN-MAD. One would assume that they could actually use an aircraft to do both GIB-MAD-GIB and MAN-MAD-MAN and, insodoing, linking the two to give MAN both a direct MAD and a one-stop GIB in one hit.

...but then, perhaps GB are likely to follow the BA lead and focus on becoming London Airways mk II...

With regard to Madrid and other destinations, BA over the years had many popular routes from manchester when they used the 737 and dare I say it the 1-11, it started going downhill when they started reducing the size of the aircraft.

pwalhx

although I have no information to support your view I think you are correct in what you say.