Haha beterblocker, that wouldnt surprise me in the slightest.

Great wall will increase again once economy picks up, which, no matter what anyone says, it will pick up again. Its just a matter of when.

Jade, It wont happen. They have a daily truck service from amstedam, and they are happy doing that at the moment. They say they are interested but thats as far as it goes-interest.

While we have china airlines on the route, eva airways will only stick to Heathrow, it is just not economicly viable at the present.

Cathay will re-increase schedules. They constantly say Manchester is their strongest performing cargo market. The offset of any decrease in cargo service may spur a pax service. If they cant fill a B744F with cargo, then they have said they will belly cargo some freight, and carry pax up on the main deck. I know you will all be tired with the constant rumours, but they are still interested in breinging the self loading freight types back to MAN too.

I work in the cargo industry now, and one service that has been steadily building is cargo to Japan, and I can tell you that JALcargo has sat up and paid attention to MAN on more than one occasion now. There have been more than a few BA shuttles from LHR that have had pure JAL cargo on board (aside from pax baggage of course), so maybe watch this space?
Just because it serves LHR already, doesnt mean that it wont come to MAN, look at CX. Also, why do you think MAN is the only domestic with a JAL codeshare on BA?

I thought it was April 1st when I read that nonsense about LH starting MAN-JFK.....:rolleyes:

LH ex MAN
 

Maybe this is the answer to your rumour of LH starting a MAN-JFK route.

LH are operating a series of ad-hoc cargo flights between the UK and USA using Manchester - hence the World MD-11 in the other week.

I think this is far more likely than anything else.

Also my source tells me that, at the moment they know of now plans for Eva to commence a route to TPE.

A380 saturday
 

The Airbus A380, the world’s largest passenger aircraft, will land at Manchester Airport for the first time on Saturday as part of a series of flights around the North West.

The aircraft will perform a standard approach into Manchester Airport at 1.20pm above the runway before heading to Liverpool.

The aircraft is likely to draw crowds of people to the airport keen to catch a glimpse of the double decker plane.

Vantage points include the top levels of the Terminal 1 and Terminal 3 car parks as well as the Aviation Viewing Park, the airport said.

“The Airbus A380 has strong links with the North West as well as playing an important role in the future of the aviation industry,” said Andrew Cornish, the airport’s managing director.

The aircraft will perform a standard approach into Manchester Airport at 1.20pm above the runway before heading to Liverpool.

So it won't land at Manchester for the first time then?

no it wont, thats an error in the article, its on crains business site, found through google news.

The Manchester experience
 

I fail to see any reason why any airline would choose to operate a passenger service to Manchester. The place is a total shamples.
On Sunday a fully loaded 747-400 landed at 0708, taxied to a remote stand off terminal 2, five buses promptly arrived but due to "staff shortages" no stairs to enable the passengers to get to the buses. The last passengers left the aircraft a hour after landing. All the passengers were treated to a full tour of the flight line before eventually getting to the terminal to join the 35 minute queue for "border control" to examine passports. Having got through that on to baggage reclaim (it's now 1hr 45min since landing). The screens don't tell you which belt to pick up your baggage from! Why! Because it hasn't arrived yet! Eventually left the terminal 2hrs 5mins after touchdown.
The airport excuse "We have an unexpectedly high number of passenger arrivals" Absolute garbage, every flight has to file a flight plan and they know well in advance just how many flights and pax are arriving, the whole place smacks of poor management and lack of customer care.

Hen Ddraig

Time to spare, go by air

New Easyjet Routes
 

2 new routes released today starting December

Daily to GVA starting 12th
3 x weekto SOF starting 11th

GVA
 

Looks to me like GVA is 9x weekly (Daily Mon-Fri, 2x Sat / Sun), all with GVA based a/c.

GVA is 9x weekly. Press release now on easyjet homepage regarding MAN routes

Don't forget Neil Pakey, and others at Peel, used to work at MAN so are well known to Muirhead et al.

They were the ones who had enough talent to leave and succeed somewhere else.

I wouldn't be surprised if Pakey's lot ended up in charge of the combined operation, when the dust settles.

That is the choice of the operator not the airport, VS choose to go remote as it saves a few £'s, if the handling agent is not upto scratch then they the airline need to sort that out, not the airport.

Hen Ddraig. Just shows what little you know.

VS076 arrived on stand four mins early at 0721. Parked, as a planned remote, on stand 219 (best B747 remote stand) where MA provided coaches were waiting. For your info there is an MA / AOC agreement operating in T2 for planned remote operations where all operators take equal share of off-pier turnarounds.

No steps. Provided by the Handling Agent contracted by the Airline; they have a choice.

Tour of the terminal. Coaches need to take a safe route to the drop off point at Gate 400 and avoid other aircraft turnarounds (fuel, staff, passengers etc). First rule of aviation - Safety!

Queue for Immigration. Service provided by UK Government .... not MA.

Wait for bags. Again provided by the handling agent contracted by Virgin.

Overall MA provided a managed operation with MA provided resources on-time. Unfortunately MA staff have too offern to 'carry the can' for airlines and Government's own failings. Suggest you send your comments to Messrs Branson and Brown on these issues.

Now stop MA bashing, get your facts right and learn some aviation!

This A380 that's passing on Saturday. I presume it's doing a UK tour of some sort as Fairford claim one will be there on Saturday as well.

At this relatively late stage, any chance of a replacement for this winter on BmiBaby's dropped Madrid service?

lufthansa across the pond from MAN
 

I certainly remember LH flying L1049H Super Starliners(Super Connies) to ORD in the the early 60,s.Sabena used to operate with first,DC7C,s and then, B707,s BRU-MAN-JFK(Idlewild) however they often overflew MAN.I had 2 F class pax on the LAST service and it left them in MAN. As they used to say Such A Bloody Experience Never Again .I would welcome LH flight to JFK connecting on UA to Eastern seaboard destinations as a good alternative to BD/UA via ORD

dh dragon, you may remember certain things about those services but your facts are screwed.

Let's start with SABENA which pioneered trans Atlantic flights from Manchester on 28 October 1953 with DC-6B OO-CTH. This started as a weekly service via Gander. The odd trip was flown using a DC-6 with an extra stop at Shannon. SABENA, having increased flights to twice a week, made the first non-stop Manchester- Idlewild service on June 28 1954.

On November 3 1954 a third service was introduced using a DC-6A mixed passenger/freight main deck combi, OO-CTP. DC-7Cs started to appear on the service from December 1956.

April 20 1960 saw the start of B707 service on the route via Shannon and on June 14 1961 the first jet service, non stop to New York, was performed by SABENA and during the winter of 1961 the Shannon stop was regularly omitted (SN having no traffic rights at Shannon).

SABENA rarely missed a Manchester departure unlike BOAC who missed out Manchester on 29 out of their first 49 scheduled 707 flights due to "the poor runway".

The only restriction that stopped SABENA was the cross wind limit, which was reached two or three times a year.

On March 31 1964, SABENA lost its fifth freedom rights through Manchester after sustained pressure from BOAC.

The SABENA service had blossomed to a daily and very punctual schedule by 1962. BOAC, which introduced its own (3 times a week in winter and daily in summer) 707 service to Prestwick and New York, managed to reduce SABENA's rights to 3 flights a week in 1963 and these were reduced to an unsustainable twice a week from April 1 1964. SABENA decided against operating to the new limit and withdrew.

I have no recollection of the last service overflying Manchester - all the references I can find and my own memory say the flight operated as scheduled on March 30 and returned on March 31 and the service was replaced by a Manchester - Brussels Caravelle service on April 1 1964.

BOAC then started a daily Manchester - Prestwick - New York service in place of its previous schedule having followed on the coat tails of SABENA throughout the development of the New York service.

Lufthansa began service from Manchester on April 23 1956 with a route that started in Hamburg and called at
Dusseldorf, Manchester, Shannon, Montreal and terminated in Chicago. This was advertised in Manchester as the Manchester Mid-Westerner and was operated by L1049G Super Constellations, D-ALIN performing the first flight. It was this service and the appearance over Stockport of these aircraft which first started my, and many other Manchester and Stockport lads', interest in aviation.

The service, Manchester's first air link with Canada, operated twice weekly until the early winter.

On April 3 1959 Lufthansa started a New York service with L1049G Super Constellations on a weekly and then twice weekly basis. The brand new L1649A Starliners were used from mid May. The service was withdrawn in winter 1959 and, apart from a few L1049, L1649 and the odd jet fuel/weather/medical diversion over the years, those were the last Lufthansa trans Atlantic flights to/from Manchester.

WELL said accman!
MA needs to stop taking digs at things that arnt all there fault!

D H Dragon
 

That SABENA acronym's a new one on me. I can remember TWA - Try Walking Across - but I've forgotten the others. Can you can remember any others ?

With regards to any LH service making connections at JFK into the UA network - the connectional opportunities at JFK are very limited. United is not a major player at Kennedy. As far as I know, they only operate transcontinental (LAX and SFO) services and a regional route to IAD. I don't think there is even an ORD service. Of the transatlantic operators, it is Delta and American who have the biggest presence at JFK.

Still, like you, I would love to see LH make a go of it.

Wingeel, the SABENA acronym joke decode is as old as the hills - first heard it in 1957 or there abouts.

At the risk of hijacking the thread for a mo, here are some others:

BEA back every afternoon
BOAC better on a camel
SAS sexually attractive stewardesses
ALITALIA always late in takeoff, always late in arriving
TAROM tatty, ancient, Russian obsolete machinery
QANTAS queer Australians never travel alone sonny
GARUDA good airline (when) run under Dutch administration
NLM never lands (in) Maastricht


There are plenty more